


I'm Alone (no you're not)

by Troth



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Families of Choice, Found Family, Kinda, M/M, taako is angus' dad, twinswap AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-05-13 14:59:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 63,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14751086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Troth/pseuds/Troth
Summary: Releasing the relics out into the world had done something worse than leveling towns or starting wars. They had destroyed his sisters happiness and Taako wouldn't stand for that. He leaves without any warning, leaving only a short note to explain his absence."Back soon"-Taako--Or: Lup becomes a reclaimer and Taako becomes a parent





	1. Back Soon

It’s been weeks since they set the relics out into the world and it’s starting to look like things will never get better. The damage they’ve done to those who encountered them is devastating. People were destroying each other trying to get a hold of that power for themselves. And worst of all, Taako hasn’t seen Lup smile since the first time the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet reduced a town to glass. Maybe Taako was beyond caring about other people at this point, but not Lup. Never Lup. He spent his whole life making her smile, even in the worst of situations. But now nothing was working and he knew she would live the rest of her life like that if things continued on this way. So late one night when he was certain the rest of the crew was asleep, Taako decided to do something about it. Quickly and quietly he packed up his things, grabbed a map of the relic’s destruction, and wrote out a quick note to his family before heading out into the night. 

“Back soon”  
\--Taako

 

Taako hated travelling alone. It always felt wrong to him. He needed to know that there was someone watching his back. Or at least someone to distract him from all this damn walking he had to do. Unfortunately for him, he was about halfway to the last place the gauntlet was seen when suddenly his wish for company came true. He had just stepped into a clearing to make camp for the night when there was a sound like the tearing of reality a few feet behind him. He spun to face the sound quickly, turning in time to see a woman stepping through some kind of portal. She had a severe face and her brunette hair was pulled back in a tight bun, but the thing that stood out about her most were her clothes. She was dressed in all black, broken up only by the golden accents of her jewelry. The suit she wore in itself was not particularly strange, but the feathered cloak draped over her shoulders coupled with the scythe she was wielding certainly caught his attention. Taako could appreciate the drama of the look but he was pretty sure this woman meant bad news for him. 

“Well hello there,” she said to him, not quite cheerfully. “You wouldn’t happen to be Taako Taaco would you?”

“Depends on who’s asking darling. You a fan?” he replied, trying to sound flippant but not quite succeeding. 

“Mmm not quite.” And suddenly in her hand was what appeared to be a book made of light. She flipped through it for a moment before landing on whatever it was she was looking for. 

“Taako Taaco, you have been found guilty of the crime of defying the order of life and death. You have died 8 times and never once entered the astral plane. For this crime you have been sentenced to Eternal Stockade. Now do me a favor and come in quietly.” 

The whole ghost jail spiel wasn’t completely surprising to Taako. They had encountered similar trouble in a handful of other worlds as well. Not being surprised however, didn’t mean that the death cops showing up when Taako was alone wasn’t more than a little bit inconvenient. It did give him a better idea of how to handle this though. Assuming he rolled a high enough persuasion check. 

“Listen,” he started. “I’m sort of a uhhhh a special case. You’re after necromancers right? Well I’ve never willfully brought myself back to life. It just sorta...happened to me. You wouldn’t arrest someone who didn’t actually perform any necromancy would you?”

“And why exactly should I believe that?” She asked, audibly unimpressed. 

“Well...maybe I can’t prove that I’m telling the truth, but you can’t prove that I’m lying either.” 

“The Raven Queen has given her judgement. That’s all the proof that I need.” 

“Well maybe she was wrong,” Taako argued. “Ever thought of that?” From the offended look on her face, he could pretty safely say that she hadn’t and wouldn’t ever. “Look, there must be some way to argue my case. You guys always just throw whoever you want into ghost jail all willy nilly? Can’t I at least have a trial or whatever?”

“Ghost ja--you know what never mind. If you truly want to have an audience with the Raven Queen herself and plead your innocence then I certainly won’t stop you. I think I’ll quite enjoy the look on your face when you first see her.” 

Holy shit he couldn’t believe that worked. “That’s what I want,” he said. 

“Then let's go.” And with that, she swung her scythe down through the air, opening another portal like the one she had appeared from. Taako looked at it apprehensively. Willingly walking into the astral plane was definitely not his style. But he didn’t know if he could take on this reaper single handedly. And even if he could, more would likely hunt him and his family indefinitely. If they were really gonna stay here he needed to get this sorted out now. With that thought in mind, he hesitantly made his way through the portal. 

Taako took stock of his surroundings as he stepped out into the astral plane. It was peaceful here, if a little bleak. There was little color here and the emptiness seemed to stretch on endlessly. The only things of note were around the island on which he stood. It was surrounded by what he would have called water if not for the fact that it was glowing a soft white light. And the only other landmark that he could see was a grey and imposing building in the middle of the island. Just the sight of it made Taako uneasy. It looked extraordinarily like something which might be called something dramatic like the “eternal stockade.” 

“Hey um what the fuck?” Taako said, rounding on the reaper. “The whole reason I stepped through that portal was so that I wouldn’t end up in jail. But this looks a whole lot like me going to jail.”  
“You can’t just drop in unannounced on the Raven Queen and demand she listen to you,” the woman snapped back. “I will go and request an audience with her as we agreed but I will not babysit you while I do so. You will wait in the stockade until your request has been approved. And if it isn’t approved you will wait there for the rest of eternity. You should be grateful I’m even giving you a chance.”

“Yup. Just overwhelmed with gratitude over here. Can’t you tell?” Taako shot back. “Look, you can’t seriously being doing this to me. I’m too pretty for prison.” This statement only earned him an eyeroll and a rough shove towards the doors of the stockade. Seeing no other option, Taako went willingly as he was guided towards his cell. 

“I’d be getting my story straight if I were you. It better be a good one if you want to be found innocent.” And with that she turned to walk away.

“Wait!” he called after her. “I never caught your name darling.” 

“Really? You’re asking me that now?” she asked incredulously.

“I’ve never been great at introductions.” 

“Isabella,” she said, leaving before he could respond. And then Taako was completely alone. He let himself take in the silence for a moment before sighing deeply and resigning himself to spending however long he was stuck here planning how to persuade the goddess of death that he should be allowed to live. Right after he finished mentally cursing out Isabella anyways.


	2. Divine Intervention

Taako spent the next few days sprawled out across the floor of his cell and bored out of his mind. One could only think about how to best handle their impending confrontation with death herself for so long before even that became dull. The only sign that time was passing at all were the three times a day Isabella brought him meals. Every time he asked her how much longer he’d be waiting and every time she blew him off. The least she could have done would be to bring him better food. With a little transmutation he could make it at least edible, but being a magic user was not the same as being a miracle worker. Finally after what felt like weeks, Isabella arrived at his cell lacking his usual meal and with and somehow managing to be more stoic than usual. 

“She’ll see you now,” was all she said as she unlocked his cell door. 

“Well it’s about time,” he responded, hoping to mask the dread that came over him from both her and himself. “Got any tips for me before we do this?”

“Don’t look directly at her face,” she said simply. And with that she opened a portal and they were on their way.

When Taako stepped through to the other side he found himself in a huge and dimly lit hallway which seemed to stretch on endlessly. It gave him the impression that if he tried to run he wouldn’t ever reach a way out. In front of him were a set of heavy doors, black like everything else in this plane seemed to be. They were really committed to their aesthetic over here. 

“So do I just go in or what?” Taako asked. 

“You follow me and you don’t speak until spoken to,” she responded. She spoke with more seriousness today than she had used with him before. It certainly wasn’t helping his nerves. He followed her lead as she pushed the doors open with a decisive shove and let him into what could only be described as a throne room. And there before him, sat the Raven Queen herself. He tried his best to take in her form but it was like his brain couldn’t make sense of it. Like whatever she was shouldn’t have been possible. And Isabella had been right about looking directly at her face. A familiar feeling set into his stomach when he tried to do so. His experience with it was the whole reason that he was here. It was the feeling of knowing with absolute certainty that you were about to die. 

“My Lady,” Isabella began. “I bring before you Taako Taaco so that he might plead his innocence. He has been charged with eight separate cases of dying without visiting the astral plane. He claims that he had no say in this matter and has come here to argue this point.” 

“Thank you my child. You are dismissed,” said the Raven Queen, voice echoing through ominously through the room. Taako watched the reaper walk away until the doors closed behind her. He had really been hoping he wouldn’t be left alone in here. 

“So,” the Raven Queen started. “You are the infamous Taako then?”

“Uhhh yeah that’s me. Hail and well met,” Taako said.

“Well then Taako, just to ensure you understand the gravity of this situation let me tell you why I am so concerned about this case. You and your associates have some of the highest bounties on your heads I have ever seen. And I have been around for a very, very long time. Not only that but none of you have ever once visited the astral plane despite how many times you’ve died. And somehow we had no knowledge of you seven or the crimes you have committed until your records suddenly turned up a few months ago. So if there is any reason at all that I should not have the seven of you thrown into the stockade for the rest of eternity it better be a very good one.” 

“Well...no pressure or anything. Uh first let me ask you this. When a necromancer brings someone back from the dead does that person also get sentenced to the stockade?”

“If they were not themselves trying to escape from the astral plane then no they would not. But you were not revived by a necromancer.”

“No I wasn’t. But I wasn’t brought back by myself either.” And with that Taako launched into the story of their hundred year journey through the planar systems. About how they discovered early on that they reset with the beginning of each cycle and that they couldn’t have stayed dead even if they had wanted to. And that if they had ever given up and chose not to flee to the next planar system it would mean that the entire multiverse would be consumed by the hunger. The Raven Queen sat patiently through this explanation, never once interrupting. When he finally stopped speaking she sat and contemplated the story for a moment before addressing him.

“So what you are telling me is that by the end of this year the world will be destroyed and the seven of you will abandon it,” she said.

“Not this time. We think we’ve found a way to hide the light of creation from the hunger. If we did then this world will be safe.”

“You intend to stay here then?”

“Yes.”

She took another moment to consider all this. “What you must understand is that this is more complicated than simply abiding by the laws of the astral plane. It’s about balance and order. All things must come to an end and they must do it when it is their time to do so. The way that I see it, it has been your time to do so eight different times. You say that this world is safe from destruction. If that is true then you have served your purpose here. And you must understand my hesitance to let a creature so customized to cheating death walk free. Perhaps I cannot justify sending you to the eternal stockade Taako but I’m not convinced that you should return to the material plane either.” 

“That’s bullshit!” Taako protested. “You can’t just keep me here! How is that fair? I didn’t even do anything wrong.”

“Death is not a fair thing Taako.” She responded, unfazed by his outburst. “It is arbitrary and it comes to all things eventually and when it does it is final. You have avoided that finality many times and that is what I would consider to be unfair.”

“You won’t even just let me live out whatever life I have left? My life is pretty dangerous it probably wouldn’t be that long until I ended up back here again.” Taako was starting to panic now. She had seemingly already made up her mind and he very much doubted that he could change it now. 

“No, I will not,” she said. And as she stood, likely to banish him to the sea of souls, the room was suddenly filled with a brilliant flash of light. It took a minute for Taako’s eyes to adjust, but when they did he realized that he and the Raven Queen were no longer alone. Where there once was empty space between them now stood a woman. She was beautiful, with long white hair and adorned in a whole rainbow of colors. She was knitting something intricate and beautiful which pooled at her feet. Taako could tell that this woman was powerful, but unlike when he met the Raven Queen, her power didn’t make him feel fearful. Instead her presence was comforting. And right now that was not an unwelcome feeling. 

“It’s been a long time old friend,” said the woman as she turned to address the Raven Queen. 

“That is has Istus. What brings you here?” she replied.

“I understand some pretty exceptional cases have come your way in the past few months. If you don’t mind I’d like to discuss them with you before you make any final decisions.”

Taako still couldn’t actually make out the details of the Raven Queen’s form, but he got the sense that she was irritated by this request. She glanced between him and who he now knew to be Istus for a moment before sighing in resignation.

“Very well,” she said. “But you better have a good reason for this.”

“Oh I do,” Istus responded confidently. She glanced Taako’s way for a moment, and he could only stare at her, stunned. She threw a wink and a warm smile his way before moving further into the room, taking a seat near the throne and calmly resuming her knitting.  
“You are dismissed for the time being. We will speak again when a decision has been reached,” The Raven Queen said to Taako. And without waiting for a response, she moved to return to her throne and join Istus.

Taako was still very confused about what had just happened but he certainly didn’t need to be told to leave twice. He walked as quickly as he could towards the door despite not really even knowing where he was meant to go. When he stepped back into the hallway he found Isabella there waiting for him. 

“So how did it go?” she asked.

“I honestly have no idea.”

 

Taako was made to wait in his cell for another entire day before being brought back to the throne room. Whatever conversation the two deities had the day before, it must have been a long one. That or the Raven Queen simply didn’t care as much as Taako had thought. Who knew what went on in the heads of the gods honestly. Not knowing whether to be more or less apprehensive about his situation now, Taako summoned what little courage he had and made his way to the middle of the room and awaited the Raven Queen’s judgment.

“Hello again Taako,” she greeted him. “I’m sure you’ve realized by now that your case has somehow managed to become more complicated than any of us initially thought. There has been much debate about what our next course of action should be.” She lets that thought hang in the air for a moment. Taako may be at odds with her at the moment but in another life Taako thinks that he could really appreciate her sense of drama. “If this decision were only up to me I would not hesitate to keep you here. Fortunately for you, this is not the case. Istus has vouched for you and insists you be allowed to live out the rest of your life. And if that is what your fate dictates then it is beyond my power to stop you. So, for that reason only, you are free to go.”

“Holy shit. You’re actually letting me go? Gonna be honest I didn’t think I was gonna make it out of this one. Fuck yeah!” Taako rambled on as relief flooded through him. After one hundred years of close calls this definitely hadn’t been how he wanted to go out for the final time. 

“Yes against my better judgement I’m letting you go. But know this Taako. The next time you find yourself here, you will not be so lucky. This is your final chance at life. Use it well.” She stared him down as she said this and Taako could only nod in response before quickly making his escape. Isabella was waiting for him in the hall once more, ready to take him home. 

“I can’t believe she actually let you go,” she deadpanned. 

“What can I say? I’m just that charming,” Taako shot back, acting maybe a little to smug for someone who was only just barely allowed to live and who had probably earned the wrath of the goddess of death. But he couldn’t bring himself to care now that he was walking free. Isabella had been given orders to drop Taako back off where she found him but he asked her to instead send him to the town he had been walking towards since she had those good good teleportation abilities. So when he stepped through the portal to the other side, he was more than a little bit surprised to find himself exactly where he had been taken from.

“Oops!” Called Isabella from where she stood in the astral plane. “Is this not where you wanted to go? Ah darn! Oh well too late now gotta go bye!” And with that the portal closed. Taako stared at the space where it had disappeared slack jawed. She actually just did that. And he couldn’t even get off a witty one liner and steal the last word. As Taako resigned himself to walking to the nearest town in search of an inn with whatever daylight he had left, he picked up his new favorite hobby which he had thought he would abandon once he had escaped, cursing out Isabella in his mind. If she didn’t deserve it before, she certainly did now. 

About two hours and many miles later he finally managed to get a room for the night. He was very much looking forward to passing out in a room with a bed for the first time since he took off. He intended to pass out for at least the next twelve hours after all that bullshit. He deserved it. Before he did though he had to figure out what he was going to do next. That detour to the astral plane meant that he had probably been gone for nearly a month now. Lup was gonna kick his ass when he got back. As much as he didn’t wanna face that, especially not with nothing to show for it, he didn’t wanna worry her anymore than he had either. He couldn’t even imagine what he would do if Lup ever went missing. Maybe it was different for him. After all, he was nothing without her. But the two of them had never lived without each other. They weren’t meant to. They were two halves of one whole which should never be separated. With that thought in mind, Taako decided that he would head back around midday tomorrow. Right after he finished sleeping until noon. 

 

Taako often had night terrors but this was different. The dreams that come with those were usually more abstract and surreal. But this dream was vivid and detailed and it set him on edge. At first he just seemed to be reliving memories. The mongoose family, learning new recipes in Tessaralia, the best day ever. But as they went on Taako started to realize that when he lingered on a memory for too long it turned to static. As he remembers less and less he begins to panic. He doesn’t know what’s happening or why and he knows he’s dreaming but this feels real. Like he still won’t remember when he wakes up. Like he’ll be left with nothing. And then he sees the faces of his family. He watches, unable to do anything as their faces dissolve into static as well. He screams. Begs whoever might be listening to make it stop. But it’s to know avail. The last person left whose face he can still make out is his sisters. He tries to run to her. To hold her. To do anything to make this stop. But just like the others, he slowly loses the ability to make out the features of her face. And then he doesn’t even remember losing her. There’s just feeling of unbearable loss that sits heavy within him and he doesn’t know why. He just knows that he is alone and that it terrifies him. The static in his head is unbearably loud now as he stands there sobbing, begging for people he can’t remember to return to him. He screams just to hear something, anything else. And just when the sound of it overwhelms him completely--

He wakes up. He’s sitting straight up in bed now, face drenched in sweat and tangled completely in his blankets. His throat feels raw from screaming but he can’t for the life of him remember what his dream had been about. But Taako wakes up this way more often than not so he thinks nothing of it. The thing that does bother him is that he can’t quite remember what he’s doing at this inn. He remembers having some kind close call in the astral plane. Maybe he accidentally fell in with some necromancers while caravan hopping. It certainly wouldn’t be the most unusual thing to have happened to him. Well, if that was true then he definitely needed to find a new group to travel with now. Feeling satisfied with this plan, Taako took his time getting ready and left to go start asking around for anyone on their way out of town. For some reason doing this made him feel uneasy today, like he should have someone doing this with him. But it didn’t make any sense for him to feel that way. After all, Taako had always been alone.


	3. Sizzle it Up

Taako didn’t know much about the group he ended up travelling with. After riding with the caravans for as long as he had they all start to seem the same. They were on some sort of delivery route, though Taako didn’t know what they were delivering. It sounded like they would be on the road for a long time though and they had been in need of a chef. Those were the only two facts that mattered. Usually in caravans like this Taako did his best to keep his head down and keep to himself. This time there was this human though, probably in his late twenties with a fairly average face, named Sazed. This dude was nothing special. Sure he’s agreeable enough but he’s still the type of person Taako typically wouldn’t spare a second glance. There was one thing that made Sazed different though. He would not leave Taako alone. He followed him around the camp like a lost puppy and always offered to be his sous chef. Sometimes this annoyed Taako. Well, a lot of the time it did. But the dude always laughed at all his jokes and showered him in compliments and looked at him with all the adoration and awe that he deserved and well--he’d been alone for a long time ok? Sue him if he liked the attention. 

Maybe Taako’s reasons for keeping Sazed around were shallow, but there were times when he genuinely did enjoy his company. Times like tonight. They were sitting side by side around the dwindling campfire after everyone else had gone to bed. It was probably well past midnight but neither of them seemed to care. They were just talking about anything and everything that came to mind. Being honest in ways that only the latest hours of the night can make you. 

“I’ve always wanted to be a performer you know,” Sazed said suddenly. Taako laughed at this despite the others seriousness.

“What would you even do? You got some secret talent I don’t know about? You’re not holding out on me are you?” he asked. 

“I don’t know yet. I’ve just always wanted to be on stage you know? And it wouldn’t be half bad to be famous either,” Sazed looked a bit dreamy at the thought of being famous. Taako guessed that this was something he daydreamed about often. 

“I think I know what you mean,” he replied. “I’ve always wanted to have a cooking show some day. ‘Sizzle it up with Taako’. People would come from all over Faerun to see it. Between my baller cooking skills and my gorgeous face I could be famous in no time.” 

“You should,” Sazed said.

“I should what?”

“Start a cooking show. It’d be amazing.” 

Taako snorted at that. “Yeah ok, I’ll just take the money I don’t have and invest in a cooking show I don’t have an audience for.”

“It’d be easy enough to get an audience,” Sazed insisted. “No one wants to pass up free food. Especially when it’s as good as yours.” 

“And the money?” Taako asked, still unimpressed. 

“You’d probably really only need a little over one hundred gold to get the show off the ground. How much have you got right now?” 

“About 30 gold.”

“I’ve got about 50 saved,” Sazed said thoughtfully. “And we should each have about 20 more by the end of this route. We could probably afford enough supplies with that.”

“What’s all this we stuff about, my dude?” asked Taako. This whole conversation was putting him a little on edge. 

“Well I’d like to invest in your cooking show. If you’ll let me, that is,” Sazed said, suddenly sounding a little uncertain. 

“Mmhmm. And what exactly do you get out of giving me all of your gold? Cause like, I don’t care if you funded it. I’m not letting you on stage with me my dude. Taako’s a solo act.” 

“Your company?” Sazed tried.

“Nope too cheesy. Try again,” Taako said.

“I’d get to live vicariously through you?” 

“Better. What would you even do anyways? Follow me around like some groupie?” Taako asked. 

“Well I thinking more like I could be your producer,” Sazed said. “You could worry about the performance part and I could worry about scheduling and getting audience and all that. Then I could at least be a part of a performance, even if I wasn’t the one on stage. And I wouldn’t have to worry about finding a job after this is over.”

“And you’d actually be fine with that? Staying behind the scenes and doing all the busy work?” 

“Of course.”

This was all getting to be too much for Taako. He’d been counting on never seeing this guy again once this all was over. But now here he was offering him a chance to do what he’s dreamed of since he was a child. He’d probably never get a chance like this again. And he didn’t love the idea of being stuck with Sazed, but he could certainly put up with him if having his show was the trade off. It’d be ideal to not have to do everything on his own anyways. He couldn’t believe he was actually considering this. 

“Ok. Listen. I’m not committing to this right now. But I’ll think about it ok? And I’ll give you an answer before our final stop,” Taako finally said. Sazed looked at him like he just told him he was going to star on fantasy Broadway. 

“Really? Thank you so much Taako. Even you considering it means the world to me. I’ll start making some plans just in case. And I’ll keep saving up money.”

“Slow down my dude I’ve still got a lot of thinking to do. Anyways, it’s late as hell and I’m going to bed. ‘Night,” he said as he made his way towards his bedroll. 

“Goodnight Taako,” Sazed responded.

As Taako laid down to sleep that night, he allowed himself to consider what it might be like to actually have the cooking show of his dreams for the first time in a long time. He tried not to get his hopes up, but his dream was finally starting to feel like a possibility. Taako falls asleep outlining potential acts in his head, with a small smile on his face. 

 

Taako thought about it just like he promised he would. In fact, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Sazed kept telling him about all these plans he had for when they got really famous. All the cities they would hit and how to perform for bigger audiences and best of all, how much money they would make. It sounded amazing. Taako started planning in his own way too. The meals he cooked became more elaborate. He started showing off more, with Sazed as his audience. Any spare time he had was dedicated to reviewing and editing his old cookbooks. When the time finally came to make a decision, Taako knew what his answer was. He was finally getting his cooking show. 

The town the caravans route ended in was big enough that they could find everything they were looking for. They bought the caravan first, then used what little money they had left over to buy the ingredients Taako needed for the show. Whatever they lacked he could make up for with magic. Eventually Sazed had the whole thing set up and they were ready to go. They were really gonna do this. 

The first show Taako did wasn’t everything that he had dreamed it would be. He didn’t have a huge audience and those who were there certainly weren’t there for him. He didn’t perform flawlessly and it wasn’t very elaborate or flashy. But he still loved it. Doing the show felt like finding where he belonged at long last. The skill and the audience would come with time. Soon everyone was going to know his name. 

Slowly but surely his fame grew. There were a lot of performances in small towns for impoverished citizens at first. Then people started approaching him after shows, telling him they’d heard rumors about him and had been hoping he’d come through. Eventually people started anticipating his events. They started travelling to see him. His audiences doubled and tripled in size. And he grew to love it more every moment he was on stage. These people loved him. They loved his talent, and his personality, and the way he could hold their attention. The pride that this gave him was indescribable. For the first time in a long time, Taako felt truly wanted. That feeling drove him to be better. He was a very good cook before but he was a master now. His proficiency with magic grew exponentially, like he was picking up an old skill he’d perfected long ago. Things were finally going Taako’s way and it made him feel unstoppable.

Not everything was as perfect as it seemed, however. Something was up with Sazed. The more Taako’s fame grew, the unhappier he seemed. He should have been happy. They were successful and had more than enough gold to go around now. But something was clearly still upsetting him. He started being harsher with Taako lately. His criticisms had an edge to them and he became more demanding and strict. If Taako every took a day to himself he’d accuse him of slacking off. If anything during the show fell short of perfect he’d lecture him about how they couldn’t afford to make mistakes. He’d get mad when his suggestions for the performance got rejected. And he always seemed to hint that the show would be better if Taako weren’t on stage alone. Taako was starting to pick up on what this behavior meant. It was exactly what he was afraid of when he first partnered with Sazed. But, as Sazed was so fond of pointing out, he couldn’t do the show without him either. It was too much work for him on his own and Taako didn’t trust easily enough to go hire another manager. Sazed was being sort of awful but he was tolerable and hadn’t betrayed him yet. So Taako decided not to confront him on it. That is, until he took it too far. 

“You know I was thinking,” said Sazed, “You’ve got so much going on during your act that it might run smoother if you weren’t doing it alone. And we’ve been working together for a long time and it’d be nice if I got some recognition too. I mean, I do the same amount of work as you do, if not more.” He’d brought this up directly after a show one day, just as the last of the crowd was leaving. Taako was tired and in no mood to be dealing with this right now, but it was looking like it couldn’t wait anymore.

“Look my man, I appreciate all you’ve done for me, I really do. But we’ve already got the brand going and it’s too new to go messing with it now. I mean, people aren’t just coming for the food anymore. They’re coming to see me. I just think that throwing a new face in the mid would be too risky.” Taako did his best to dance around the issue. His whole show could be ruined if he wasn’t careful. 

“But this is the perfect time to do it!” Sazed insisted. “People are loyal enough now to not abandon the show but we’re still new enough that people’s expectations aren’t holding us back! If we’re going to make changes then we have to make them soon.”

“Well we’re not making changes so it doesn’t matter,” Taako said sharply. 

“You won’t even consider it? You’re being unreasonable Taako.”

“Sazed when we started this show we explicitly agreed that we would never share that stage. I made it very clear where I stood on that and you said that was ok with you.” Taako was starting to get a bad feeling about this. His ears started twitching erratically and he kept tugging anxiously at his braid. 

“That was so long ago though. We’ve changed so much since then. We know better about what will improve the show now,” Sazed said. 

“You’re right, I do know more about what will improve the show. And I don’t think this is it.” He was doing his best to maintain an even tone but it was getting difficult. 

“You won’t even give me a chance?” Sazed asked. He was getting in Taako’s space now. This was getting bad. 

“No I won’t.” 

“Why not?”

“Cause I don’t think you’re cut out for it ok?” Taako yelled, too frustrated to care. A dark look crossed over Sazed’s face. He advanced further on Taako. 

“How could you say that to me?” He demanded. “You wouldn’t even have this show if it weren’t for me! I invested all the money I had so that you could start this show and I do all of the work to maintain it. I pull more than my fair share of the weight in this partnership and you don’t even have the decency to give me a chance?” Sazed was shouting now, too angry to be reasoned with. Taako tried anyways. 

“We were very clear on the terms of this arrangement when we entered into it.” He said cooly. “If you were unhappy with it you shouldn’t have agreed to the terms. If you’re unhappy with it now then you only have yourself to blame.”

“How could you be so ungrateful? So selfish? I do everything for you and you won’t give me a thing in return. You would be nothing without me and you still won’t give me an ounce of respect. I ask you for a small favor and even that is too much from you. You know how much it would mean to me to be on stage. The show would be fine if I were. It might even be better. But you just want the spotlight all for yourself. If this is how you’re going to treat me then maybe I should start looking for a job where I’ll be appreciated.”

“No Sazed just...look. I’ll think about it ok? If it means that much to you then I’ll think about it,” said Taako. He had absolutely no intention of doing that but he needed to diffuse this situation and quickly. 

“Promise?” Sazed asked.

“I promise.”

“Ok. Thank you Taako. It really does mean the world to me.”

“Mmhmm,” was the only response Taako could manage. “I’m gonna go clean up the stage now ok?” Taako said, eager to escape.

“Yeah, ok. I’m gonna start packing up,” said Sazed.

“Cool,” he said simply before retreating back towards the stage. His mind raced trying to figure out what to do in the aftermath of their argument. He couldn’t just hope that Sazed would forget about it because he knew he wouldn’t. He couldn’t include him in the show because he would ruin it. Not only that, but this was Taako’s dream. It was something he didn’t feel comfortable sharing with someone else. It was too personal to him. This was the one thing he truly felt like he could do well. He couldn’t have someone taking that away from him. He really didn’t have any other options though. He either got a new manager or gave in. Both had a pretty good chance of ending his show forever. This was his one chance and he was about to lose it. Taako’s hands began to shake as he scrubbed the pots and pans he had been using clean. Well, for the time being he would try to draw out this stalemate as long as possible. He’d keep giving Sazed non-committal answers about adding him in the show. He’d do this as long as possible until Sazed wouldn’t accept maybe as an answer anymore. And then...he’d do as much damage control as he possibly could, whatever that meant. There was really no best case scenario here but he’d do his best to salvage what he could. He’d worked to hard and come to far to give up now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the next chapter we're finally gonna start moving away from all the set up stuff and get into the actual main plot line. Get ready to start seeing some familiar faces


	4. Unplanned Parenthood

After their fight the tension between them never really goes away. Now that they had both put their thoughts out into the open there was really nothing stopping them from fighting anymore. It was never anything as huge as the original argument, but they snapped at each other about seemingly everything now. It was really starting to wear on Taako too. Usually he could distract himself from Sazed by planning his next show, but even that wasn’t working for him now. Lately he’d even been debating whether seeing this through was even worth it to him anymore. The show was supposed to make him happy but now it’s not even doing that. 

Taako wasn’t even really sure what their most recent fight had been about. They just started yelling at each other out of frustration he guessed. Whatever it was it had been bad enough that he demanded they pull the caravan over. As soon as they were stopped he was out and walking deeper into the forest they had been passing through. He needed to be away from Sazed right now and hoped a walk would clear his mind a little. 

Distracted by his own thought, he didn’t notice the sound right away. But the closer he got to it the clearer it became. Some poor creature out there was crying, loud and ugly. This was the sort of thing Taako would typically walk away from, but he really was desperate for a distraction. So with a shrug of his shoulders he followed the noise to the source. The sound led him to a point not too far off from the road, though still a ways away from where he’d left Sazed. What he found there made him stop in his tracks. There, lying at the base of a tree, was a baby. It couldn’t have been more than a month old and he seemed to be half elven at least judging by the size and shape of his ears. It was obvious that no one was coming back for this poor kid. That thought caused Taako’s heart to ache uncomfortably. Taako would never admit this out loud, or even to himself for that matter, but he had a soft spot for kids. Especially kids who didn’t have anyone taking care of them. This little brat he’d found was really hitting all of his weaknesses. Before he could talk himself out of it, Taako made his way over to the kid and scooped it up into his arms.

“Shh shh you’re ok pumpkin. You’re gonna be ok,” he murmured. The baby seemed at least a little pacified by being held to Taako’s chest. It still made the occasional distressed sound but the crying had stopped for the most part. Taako took a moment to get a better look at the kid. Patches of vitiligo were scattered along the right side of its face. Except for that, its skin was just a shade darker than his own. It already had the beginnings of curly brown hair growing in too. Taako gently ran his hand through their curls for a moment, the baby’s ears twitching contentedly as he did so. He couldn’t help himself and started playing with the kid’s ears as well. This baby was really manipulating his emotions. Now he was in too deep. 

He just stood there for a moment, gently rocking the kid back and forth while debating what he should do now. He sincerely doubted that Sazed would let him throw their precious schedule off by taking the time to find an orphanage. Even if he did, the thought of leaving any kid to that fate didn’t sit well with him, much less a baby. He couldn’t take care of the kid himself. Neither he or his lifestyle were suited for child care. Really the best thing for Taako to do would be to walk away. One look at the kids tear stained face ended that thought before it was even fully formed. Well...he’d just figure it out as he went he guessed. With a deep sigh, Taako began making his way back to the caravan, absently letting the kid play with his fingers. 

 

“What the hell is that?” Sazed yelled the moment he saw Taako.

“A baby,” was Taako’s vague response. 

“And what exactly are you doing with a baby?” asked Sazed. He was clearly still mad from before and the appearance of their new guest was only making it worse. 

“I found the kid abandoned in the woods Sazed. What did you want me to do, leave him there to die?” Taako asked, angry now too. 

“Yes! That’s exactly I what I want you to do! What the hell are we supposed to do with a kid?”

“Fuck I don’t know! We could at least be decent enough to give it a shot at surviving though!”

“No,” said Sazed. “I put up with a lot from you Taako but this is too much. Leave the baby and let’s go. We don’t have time to deal with it and it absolutely isn’t coming with us.”

“I won’t do that Sazed,” Taako hissed. He clutched the baby a little closer to him, as if to emphasize his point. 

“You have to do that Taako,” Sazed bit back. “It’s the kid or me. I’m serious about this. I already have to babysit you all the time, I won’t do it for a baby as well.”

“...I choose the kid,” said Taako.

“What?” Sazed demanded.

“You heard me Sazed. I choose the kid. Consider our partnership over.” Taako’s tone was even and deadly serious. He desperately hoped that Sazed couldn’t tell how much this decision scared him. 

“Fine,” he responded cooly. “If that’s how it is then I’ll go. I’m adding what I spent on that caravan to my half of the money. I assume you’ll want to keep it.” Taako just nodded in response. Sazed didn’t have anything to say to that. He just went inside to collect his things. With how quickly he returned Taako suspected that he had been anticipating leaving soon. 

As he left Sazed turned to address Taako one last time. “You aren’t anything without me you know?” he said. “Everything you were was because of me and the work that I did. No one will so much as remember your name when I’m gone.”

“Goodbye Sazed,” Taako said harshly.

“Goodbye Taako.” And with that he finally left. Taako watched him for awhile as he headed back towards the town they had just left before tearing his eyes away. Instead he looked down at the tiny little life that he held in his arms and wondered if he had made the right decision. Panic began to hit him all at once. He felt sobs tear their way through is throat and the force of it brought him to his knees. His whole body began to shake and his mind raced to make sense of what he had just done. Newly alone with a baby in his arms and the remains of a dream no longer in his reach around him, Taako could only sit there and cry. 

 

When he finally calmed down enough to get his breathing under control, the first thing he did was try to quiet the baby. His distress had caused the child to start crying again as well. When the both of them seemed to be done with tears for the moment Taako did his best to come up with a plan. He really couldn’t do the show anymore now that he had a child to look out for and no one to help him. Thinking about Sizzle it Up being over was too much for him right now though. The show would just be ‘on hiatus’ he decided. That was much less permanent. That way he could still pretend that the best thing he’d ever had didn’t just come crashing down around him. 

“Now what the hell am I supposed to do with you?” he mused out loud. The baby blinked up at him sleepily. He supposed that he’d be tired too if he’d almost died of exposure and then got dragged into some strangers drama. Speaking of dying of exposure, the kid really should see a healer, just to be safe. Maybe they would have some idea of what to do with an abandoned baby too. That plan seemed decent enough to him so he started to get ready to take off in the opposite direction as Sazed. The weight of what had just happened wouldn’t leave him for a very long time, but for the moment all he could feel was numb as began to drive towards the nearest town. 

It took him about two hours to make it into town and once he did he went straight towards the church, the kid clutched in his arms. Once inside he was introduced to a healer named Kel. He was an older man in his sixties with a stern face but a kind smile. He greeted Taako warmly when he arrived.

“And who do we have here?” Kel asked, gesturing to the little bundle in his arms.

“Dunno,” Taako responded. “I found the kid in the woods a few hours ago. As far as I can tell they’ve been abandoned. Not sure how long they’ve been that way though. I just wanna make sure they’re all good.”

“We can certainly do that.” Kel said with a smile. “If I could just take a look at them.” Taako visibly hesitated when Kel reached out for the baby. Kel only laughed good naturedly. 

“I’ll take good care of them. I promise,” he said. With that, Taako finally handed the baby to him. Kel laid the kid out on a bed and began looking over him for any signs of sickness or injury. A series of spells and a change of diapers later and the baby was returned to him. 

“Congrats Taako, you have a healthy baby boy. Aside from some mild dehydration and a definite need for a meal anyways. I’d guess he wasn’t in that forest for long before you found him. He should recover nicely.” Taako felt relief wash over him as he took the boy back, holding him close once more. 

“Thanks Kel. Really.” Taako said.

“Of course. Is there anything else I can do for you two?” Kel asked.

“Actually, if you have any advice on what to do with abandon babies you found in the forest I’d seriously appreciate it,” Taako said. Kel chuckled a little at this. 

“Well our town doesn’t have an orphanage. You’ll have to go over to Stratford for that,” he said thoughtfully.

“Any potential parents with good homes who’ve always wanted a baby? Or just like anyone who would take him? I’d really rather he didn’t go to an orphanage,” said Taako. 

“No one I can think of unfortunately,” Kel said. “But...you could always take him?”

“Nope. No I don’t think so. Not gonna happen. Taako is not parenting material.” 

“Well you want to make sure the child goes to a go home don’t you? In my experience, there is no better home for a child than one in which they are loved. And you obviously love the boy and you’ve only spent a few hours with him. The rest can be learned in time.” Taako was still looking at him like he was going crazy so Kel raised his hands in surrender. “But the nearest orphanage is decent enough if that’s what you’d prefer.”

“I’ll think about it I guess,” Taako sighed. He couldn’t believe he was even going to do that. 

“If that will be all then, I wish you two the best of luck,” Kel said. They said their goodbyes and Taako made his way back out of the church. He’d been hoping he’d have a slightly better idea of what his plan was after this. No such luck. For now he decided to restock on supplies and make sure the kid got fed. Luckily in his years of taking odd jobs on the road he’d gotten some experience with child care. He knew the basics of how to keep a baby alive and healthy. However, that was a very different thing than raising one. Why was he even considering this? Taako couldn’t be a dad. He lived on the road, always just barely getting by. He didn’t have any stable income to speak of. If he tried to do this he would almost certainly ruin this kid’s life. Even the orphanage would be a better place for him than with Taako. He had to take him there. There was no other choice. After a quick stop at the store Taako took the kid back to the caravan and sat with his feet hanging off the back of it, bottle feeding the kid some milk he’d transmuted to be suitable for an infant. 

“I guess I’m stuck with you until we can get to Stratford huh?” Taako said to the boy. He babbled happily at him, trying to grab at his fingers as he waved them just out of reach. 

“Don’t you start being all cute now. I can’t keep you bubbeleh. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.” The boy had his pointer finger in his tiny little grasp now. Taako didn’t resist him even when he stuck his finger in his mouth. 

“Grossarooni little dude. I gotta eat lunch with that hand ya know,” he said with little heat. For the moment he was just content to watch the kid entertain himself. He figured he’d head out after lunch and make some progress on the two day journey up to Stratford. After that he didn’t know what the plan was. Try to restart his show? Look for a new job? He didn’t know and honestly he was trying not to think about it. Facing his problems head on had never been his strong suit.

As soon as the two of them had finished lunch Taako was packed up and on the road again. The sooner he was rid of this little brat the sooner he could work on regaining some stability in his life. 

 

The two day trip to Stratford felt painfully long but at least he’d managed to keep the kid alive. He needed to be rid of the thing as soon as possible though because he’s been picking up embarrassing habits like making weird faces at him and speaking in baby talk. That’s exactly the sort of thing that would ruin his brand. He’d been stubbornly refusing to give him a name either cause then he’d really be done for. Nope, Taako had to remain as unattached as possible for this to work. 

When they finally made it into town Taako wasted no time finding the orphanage. Judging from the outside it seemed nice enough. Big and quaint and not obviously in a state of disrepair. Much nicer than some of the places Taako had stayed in growing up that was for sure. Deciding he could at least feel ok about leaving the boy here, Taako began to make his way to the buildings entrance. 

“You’re gonna be just fine here kiddo,” he said. “They’re gonna take good care of you here. They’ll do a much better job than I could. And one day you’re gonna go to a good home and have parents who adore you.” The more he spoke the less sure he was that the kid was the one he was trying to convince.

When he finally reached the top of the steps he took in a deep breath. This was it. All he had to do was knock, hand over the kid and be done with it. It was simple. So why couldn’t he do it? He just stood there in front of the door, frozen in place with indecision. 

Taako spared a glance down at the baby in his arms and boy howdy was that a mistake. This kid was too cute for his own good. During the trip he’d been a bit fussy but he seemed to be in good spirits today. He smiled up at Taako and kept up his endless stream of nonsense syllables. His ears tried to flutter with happiness but they were too big for him to move them much yet so they just sort of waved behind him. It was truly a precious sight. 

“Fuck,” Taako said, resignation in his voice. “I’m not gonna leave you here am I?” The boy’s only response was to keep chattering away. 

“This is dumb. I’m not responsible enough for this.” He waited for a moment, though he wasn’t sure what for. Someone to agree maybe, or some sort of sign that he really was about to commit a huge mistake and should quit while he was ahead. None ever came. 

“Alright, fuck it let’s go. Sorry kiddo but looks like you’re stuck with me. This whole trip was a huge waste of time,” Taako rambled on, if only to ignore the thoughts going through his mind right now. What on earth had he just signed himself up for?

Having decided he’d had enough of travelling in the past few days, Taako decided he’d just stay in town until tomorrow. He quickly rented a room at an inn and got settled in for a long day of reevaluating his entire life. 

“You know pumpkin, I think it’s time I gave you a name. I can’t keep calling you ‘the kid’ in my mind it’s getting super annoying.” The boy was indifferent to his musings, too busy sucking on the bottle he’d been given.

“What about...Luke? Lucas? Luis? Do I only know names that begin with ‘lu’?” Taako wondered aloud. “What do you think angel?” Still no response from the kid. Unhelpful little brat.

“Angel...An...gus? Angus? You feeling that one pumpkin?” He was still being uncooperative but he’d finished his bottle by this point. Taako took it from him gently and laid him down on the bed. 

“Angus is a super dorky name. It wouldn’t be great for the Taako Brand. But if we stick with it I don’t have to keep thinking of names,” Taako mused. Eventually, like always, his laziness won out. 

“Angus it is then. You seem kinda like you’ll be a dorky kid anyways,” Taako told him. The newly named Angus was starting to get fussy again as Taako finally came to a decision. 

“Yeah yeah I get it, it’s nap time. I think I might just have to join you boychik. It’s been a long day for Taako too.” 

Taako picked Angus up and rearranged them so that he was lying on the bed and Angus was laying on his chest. He rubbed circles into the boy’s back as they both finished settling in. As Taako looked down at this kid (his son?), slowly drifting off into sleep, face partially obscured by his too large ears, he couldn’t help but feel like he’d made the right choice today. He could only hope he still felt that way in the days to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My sweet boy is finally here! Some scenes from Angus' childhood are coming up in these next few chapters and if there's anything specific you guys would like to see feel free to let me know!


	5. A Generous Donation

It’s been about a month since Taako had started taking care of Angus which also happened to be the last time he had slept properly. He thanked whatever deity was listening that elves only really needed to mediate, because Angus’s crying kept him up all hours of the night these days. Taako didn’t know what the little dude was always screaming about. All the kid had to do was sleep and eat. If he were living that life he’d be happy as hell. 

The lack of sleep was something Taako could more or less deal with. It wasn’t ideal but he’d certainly survive. The biggest issue he’d been having was always having to keep an eye on Angus without any help. Having to do that while travelling, making camp, and cooking was just too much for him. He had nowhere to leave the kid to keep him safe while he did something that was dangerous or needed his full attention, like making a fire or driving. Juggling basic day to day tasks while making sure Angus was safe at all times was a nightmare. He couldn’t exactly babyproof a campsite either so he just had to suck it up. Something had to give and Taako knew it. 

That’s why he found himself moving into a tiny little studio apartment in Neverwinter. He’d had to give up a lot of his savings to do it, and he’d definitely need to find a job sooner now, but it’d be easier on both him and the kid this way. Angus deserved to have some stability in his life anyways. Taako had some reservations about planting roots anywhere--he probably always would--but he knew it was the right thing to do. 

The apartment had come mostly furnished but now that he had the space he needed to get Angus a crib. Rumor had it there had been some big carpentry competition in town recently and now a lot of the competitors were out trying to make a profit before they headed home. Whatever they were selling probably wouldn’t be all that affordable, but Taako could be pretty persuasive when he needed to be. So he grabbed his purse, stuck Angus in his sling, and walked out the door. 

A little market had been set up for the craftsmen just outside of downtown. It was incredibly crowded today, a result of the sunny weather and the exclusivity of professionally crafted furniture. Taako didn’t let this slow his pace. He was nothing if not an efficient shopper. Not many vendors were selling cribs today so there wasn't much to choose from. They were probably too big to transport easily. There was a stand towards the very end though that had one that was absolutely gorgeous. Two people appeared to be running this stand. One was a woman who was strikingly pretty, with a rounder frame and skin littered with freckles. She had a mess of brown windswept hair tied back in a ponytail. She seemed friendly enough, but Taako had the distinct impression that she could snap him in half if she so chose. There was something powerful about her. _Now that’s a competent woman_ he thought. The man she was working with could only be described as a brick shithouse. He was chatting excitedly with some of the customers at a volume Taako thought all of Neverwinter must be able to here. Deciding he was too rowdy for his taste, Taako approached the woman. As soon as she caught sight of him her eyes went wide and she gasped loudly, quickly meeting him halfway. 

“Oh my god you have a baby!” she exclaimed. “What a little sweetheart! What’s his name?” The sudden attention had caught Taako off guard. He could only blink at her for a moment.

“Um his name is Angus. And yours would be…?” 

“Oh right, sorry. My name’s Julia,” she said, reaching out to shake his hand.

“I’m Taako. Nice to meet you and all that,” he said, still a little shaken by her enthusiasm. 

“Magnus!” she called behind her. “You have to come see this baby!”

“There’s a baby?” The burly man shouted while rushing towards them. Great, now there were two of them. 

“Oh my god he’s so cute,” the man cooed. “Look how little he is! Can I see him?” he asked. Taako gave the dude a quick once over. He could be a tiny bit overprotective when it came to Angus. For some reason he got the impression he could trust this guy though. Shrugging, Taako gently took Angus out of his sling and handed him over. Magnus looked absolutely ecstatic to be holding the kid. Angus seemed to appreciate the attention as well. He sat contentedly in Magnus’ arms, babbling nonsense words at him. Magnus looked up with wide eyes at Julia.

“Look at him he’s so perfect. I want ten of these,” he said. Julia only laughed at that. 

“Maybe you’ll have some of your own one day Mags. You better let me come play with them when you do,” she teased. 

“Of course I will,” he responded. 

“Hey uh, speaking of kids, you guys wanna tell me how much that crib over there is?” Taako interrupted. 

“Oh right. Um the crib will be about 60 gold,” Magnus told him. Taako made a face at that. Sixty gold was quite a bit more than he wanted to pay after spending so much on the apartment. 

“Yeah I definitely can’t swing that right now,” Taako said. “Any chance you’d be willing to go lower?” Magnus glanced down at the baby in his arms for a moment, then looked at Julia, seeming to be asking for permission.

“How about 45 gold and I get to hold the baby too,” She offered.

“Deal,” said Taako. Magnus passed Angus over to Julia while he accepted the gold and went to ring up the purchase. 

“Do you need help moving this or anything? We can deliver it to you on our way out of town tomorrow,” Magnus offered once the transaction was finalized and Angus was returned to him. 

“Nah I got this. Thanks though,” Taako said. He drew his wand and cast a quick levitate spell on the crib. 

Magnus looked impressed by the use of magic. “Well alright then,” he said. 

“It was lovely meeting the two of you,” said Julia. “If you ever need anything else you can find us at the Hammer and Tongs down in Raven’s Roost.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Taako said, knowing full well he’d do nothing with that information. They all exchanged their goodbyes and Taako made his way back to the apartment with the crib floating behind him. 

“We did pretty good today, huh pumpkin?” Taako said to Angus. When he glanced down at him the boy was nodding off in his sling. It was just about his nap time and he’d had the excitement of meeting two whole people today. Taako could relate. He also needed a nap after meeting multiple people at once. He quickly made his way home and got Angus settled into his new crib. He fell asleep almost immediately. 

_Alright_ , Taako thought, _now all I need to do is figure out how to make some money_. That was probably something he should work on right away. But he’d already been productive today so he decided it could wait. Instead he worked on moving the rest of his stuff from the caravan to his apartment. Tomorrow he’d go job hunting for sure. 

 

Taako was doing as he said and looking for work when he first saw it. Right in the middle of downtown was the cutest little building. _A few minor renovations and it’d be the perfect place for a bakery_ , he thought as he passed by. Wait. That wasn’t a bad idea. With his talent and the remaining fame he had left he could probably have a successful bakery running in relatively little time. It wouldn’t be quite as glamorous as Sizzle it Up had been but it could still be fun. 

He let himself envision it for another moment before confronting the reason he definitely couldn’t go through with that. While he still had a pretty decent amount of money leftover from the show, it was nowhere near enough to open a store. And it wasn’t like he was making any money at the moment either. Letting the dream die almost as quickly as he thought of it, Taako spared the building one last glance and walked away. Not without memorizing the stone of farspeech number in the window though. You know, just in case.

Try as he might, the thought of opening the bakery just wouldn’t leave him. His mind kept wandering back to it the whole rest of the day. He kept creating plans in his head trying to make it work. If he gutted the caravan for appliances he could save some money. Magic could make up for a lot if he found himself lacking in supplies too. He was already used to cooking for large amounts of people so he wouldn’t need to hire anyone else at first. No matter how he looked at it though, he couldn’t afford the building unless he raised some money. 

“Ango listen up for a sec.” he said as worked on cooking dinner. Angus was looking up at him from his crib on the other side of the kitchen’s island. Taako assumed that meant he was listening. 

“I gotta figure out how to get a bunch of money fast if I want to do this. Here’s what I’m thinking. I could sell some exclusive tickets for one last run of Sizzle it Up. That way I could hike up ticket prices and still get a pretty decent crowd. Then during the show I could mention that I’m looking for investors for a new store and see if I get any offers. What do you think kiddo? Is that plan crazy?” Angus let out a short little shriek and stretched his hands out towards him, obviously tired of being ignored.

“Alright I get it, I get it.” Taako murmured, scooping him up out of the crib and letting him settle against his shoulder. “Seriously though, is this dumb?” Tiny hands grabbed at his face and he did nothing to stop them. At least it wasn’t his earrings this time. 

“I’m gonna go ahead and take that as a no.” He grabbed the hand that was smudging his lipstick across his face and pressed an exaggerated kiss to the top of it, sending Angus into a fit of giggles. Encouraged by this, Taako covered Angus’ face in a flurry of tiny kisses, making him laugh even harder. With one last kiss to the boy’s temple, Taako finally relented, flopping dramatically down onto the couch. 

“Alright kiddo, let’s figure out how we’re gonna do this.”

 

Figuring out what to do in the show itself was easy. He’d done it a million times before. What he hadn’t done before was all the behind the scenes stuff. Sazed had done it though, so how hard could it really be? Luckily people still knew his name so he could primarily advertise through word of mouth. He started talking to people he thought would spread the word around, as well as putting up flyers in taverns and around downtown. Soon everyone was talking about it. In a weeks time Sizzle it Up would hold its final performance. 

There were still aspects of the show he couldn’t do on his own. Mostly he needed someone to sell tickets and to keep an eye on Angus during the show. He recruited a super fan of his for the job easily enough in exchange for free admission. She was a lovely half orc women named Tessa who had absolutely melted at the sight of Angus when they’d first met. Taako felt reasonably sure he could trust her. 

In what felt like no time at all, a week passed and it was showtime. It almost felt wrong to Taako, knowing he would never do this again. Getting ready to perform only reminded him how much he loved doing this and how much he would miss it. But if this was how he was going out, Taako would make the most of it. He took the stage with his usual amount of grandeur and looked out across the audience. A solid fifty or so people had came. There’s nothing like performing in a big city. 

“Hello to all you lovely people, and welcome to the final performance of Sizzle it Up with Taako. We’re going all out today folks so I hope you’re ready for an amazing show.”

Taako didn’t pull any punches today. His showing off just barely fell short of being obnoxious. It was incredible though. He used all his toughest tricks. Magic was laced artfully into his actions, giving them a tasteful amount of flair. The audience was completely captivated by his skill. And to make it all that much better, when he glanced up at the audience he could see Angus in the front row watching him from Tessa’s lap. Seeing him out there filled Taako with a joy he couldn’t have anticipated. He wanted to live in this moment forever, completely in his element, surrounded by people who loved him and the one he loved back. This was the happiest he’d felt in a long time. But like all good things, the moment had to come to and end. 

“Thank you all so much for coming out to the show’s finale. Sizzle it Up has meant a lot to me these past couple of years and I’m sad to see it go. If you’ll miss this like I will, then maybe you wanna consider funding my next big project and help me open a bakery right here in Neverwinter. That’s right folks if we raise enough money you could have food handmade by yours truly whenever you wanted. Alright that’s all I’ve got for you guys. Again, thank you all so much you’ve been a wonderful audience.” And just like that, Sizzle it Up was over. 

 

A week had passed since his final performance and Taako had been running himself ragged working on his bakery. Between all the research he had to do in regards to the building and the costs plus trying to figure out how he was going to afford it, he’d barely had a moment to himself. Today he had finally decided it was time for a break. After Angus had been put down for his nap, Taako decided to treat himself and whip up some elderflower macaroons. He was about halfway done with them when his stone of farspeech started flashing. 

“What do they want now?” he muttered to himself before accepting the call and greeting whoever it was.

“Hello Mr. Taako. I’m calling to let you know that someone dropped by the office today and made an incredibly generous donation to you for the building you were looking at. It’s enough to cover the down payment and the first couple months of rent. If you’re still interested, the building is yours.” said his real estate agent. Taako could only stare at the stone in shock.

“You’re telling me some mysterious stranger just gave me a ton of money, no strings attached, so that I could open my bakery.” he said slowly. 

“It appears that way, yes.”

“Well...that’s shady as hell but I’m in no position to reject it either. I guess I’ll take it.”

“Excellent. Come by the office tomorrow and we can work on getting all the paperwork finalized.”

“Yeah, ok. I’ll see you then I guess.” Taako said and hung up without waiting for a response. This was too good to be true. There was no way some rich stranger just decided to come and answer all of Taako’s prayers. That sort of thing didn’t happen to him. 

Well, even if this came back to bite him eventually, there wasn’t anything he could do about it now. He did his best to push his doubts aside and to focus on the good news for now. Taako was really going to open his bakery.


	6. First Day

Taako has slowly but surely been learning to appreciate having a stable and calm life. Ever since the bakery had opened things had actually been going pretty smoothly. It turned out he didn’t really know how to handle stability. Living on the road had left him paranoid, always waiting for things to fall apart. Now he had a stable income and a more permanent living situation. He couldn’t stand it at first. It sent his fight or flight response into overdrive every time he thought about it. But now, finally, he was beginning to associate the permanence with safety. 

This apartment, upgraded to a two bedroom not long after the bakery had opened, was where he’d watched his kid growing up. It was filled with memories of pillow forts and bedtime stories and baking experiments gone wrong. It was where Taako was doing his very best to give Angus the childhood he deserved. The one that Taako himself had never had. So naturally, right when Taako had learned to appreciate the consistency and reliability of this life, things were about to change again.

Angus had turned five sometime this summer. That meant that he was old enough to go to school. Taako himself had never spent much time in school. He attended a few years in his early childhood but most things he’d simply taught himself. He suddenly wished he was a little more familiar with what school was like though, now that he was about to send his kid to one. There was part of him that wanted to just keep the kid here and homeschool him. Angus deserved to go to school though. He was a sponge for information and it’d do him good to be around kids his age. So as soon as he ran all this by Angus he’d start working on enrolling him in classes. 

It was the weekend after Angus’ birthday when he decided to bring the subject up. Well, Taako called it his birthday anyways. It was actually just the day Taako had found him. Angus was curled up on the couch making his way through one of the many books he’d gotten as presents. Taako flopped down beside him to catch his attention.

“Hey boychik, mind if we chat for a sec?” Taako asked him.

“Um sure. Is everything ok?” Angus asked apprehensively. 

“Of course little dude don’t even trip. I just wanted to talk to you because you’re five now, which means if you want to you can start going to school this fall.”

“Really?” asked Angus, eyes lighting up. 

“Mmhmm. I just wanted to make sure that’s what you wanted to do before I started on all the paperwork and stuff. It seems like you’re interested though,” Taako said.

“Yeah I am!” said Angus. “Then I can meet lots of new people and learn a bunch and get really smart like you!”

“Don’t sell yourself short there Agnes you’re gonna be way smarter than me.” Taako said, ruffling his hair a little.

“Do you really think so?” Angus asked while trying to straighten his hair back out. 

“Of course I do. Unless you keep goofing off and ignoring your reading. God kid, who said you could start slacking off?” he teased. Angus just stuck his tongue out at him and Taako did it right back. While Angus went back to what he was doing Taako wandered off to start researching how to go about getting Angus enrolled at the local elementary school. He had a feeling it would be a very long and tedious process. The things he did for that boy. 

 

The summer passed by much too quickly for Taako’s taste and much too slowly for Angus’. For Angus, who was always in pursuit of facts and knowledge about the world around him, school sounded like a dream come true. There was only so much he could teach himself from books. He also really wanted to make some friends. He loved his dad but it would be nice to have someone else to talk to sometimes. 

Taako on the other hand was really starting to dread not having Angus around as much. He knew it wasn’t like he would never see him again but it still sort of felt that way. For five whole years he’d had him around pretty much all day every day. He couldn’t really be blamed if sending him to school felt a little bit like losing him. But Taako sucked it up because he saw how excited Angus was about this. He kept those emotions bottled up all throughout the paperwork and the school shopping and the near constant questions about what kindergarten was going to be like. Then all too suddenly, it was the first day of school.

“You sure you got all your supplies packed little man?” Taako asked Angus as he walked him down the hallway towards his classroom. 

“Yep!” Angus replied.

“And your stone of farspeech?”

“Mmhmm.”

“And you got your lunch?”

“Dad I’ve got everything!” Angus said with a laugh. “You don’t have to worry so much.”

“Who’s worried?” Taako said with feigned indignance. “I just don’t want them calling me to come over here in the middle of the day because you forgot a pencil or something.”

“I’ll be fine.” Angus insisted as they finally reached his classroom. When they entered they were greeted by the teacher who introduced herself as Ms. Forni. They exchanged a few pleasantries before she moved on to the next set of parents. The moment Taako realised it was time for him to leave he was overwhelmed by all the fear and anxiety he’d been ignoring for months. Oh no. He was not gonna be caught crying in front of all these PTA moms. Absolutely not. He felt his eyes begin to sting though so he subtly flicked his hands as a cast a quick glamor and knelt down to say his goodbyes to Angus. 

“Well boychick this is where we part ways,” he said. Angus just looked at him for a moment, a little to knowingly. Then he stepped forwards a little and ran his thumb over Taako’s cheek, feeling the tears flowing freely now behind the glamor. He frowned at him a little before wrapping him in a tight hug.

“I really am gonna be fine,” Angus told him.

Taako sighed and pulled him closer. “I know you are Angus. I’ll just miss you is all.” He pulled back a little to look Angus in the eye. “I’ll see you later ok?” 

“Ok,” he confirmed. Taako gave him one last hug and kiss on the cheek before gathering enough strength to leave. And then he was alone, making his way back through the school hallways, trying not to immediately start counting the hours until he’d get his son back. He made his way to work as fast as he could, eager for the distraction. 

 

Taako had been standing in front of the school for fifteen agonizingly slow minutes before the school bell finally rang. It was admittedly his own fault for running out of work so fast. That didn’t mean he wasn’t unhappy about it though. As kids began to pour out of the building he scanned the crowd for Angus. He spotted him chatting animatedly with a little tiefling girl. When Angus caught sight of him he quickly said his goodbyes and ran over to him. The moment he was within arms reach Taako scooped him up in a hug.

“Hi dad!” Angus greeted him.

“Hey there pumpkin.” Taako said, standing back up to start their walk back home. “What’d you think? Did you have a good first day?”

“Yep! Ms. Forni was really nice and I met this girl named Ava and she sat with me at lunch and she said we could be friends!” Angus told him.

“Really? Well it sounds like you did pretty good today Ango. It’s too bad you can never go back.” Taako teased.

“But I want to go back!” Angus played along, used to his dad’s antics. 

“Sorry kid but no can do. I just don’t think it’s gonna work out. I missed my boy too much. Oh well I guess you’ll just have to stay at home with me forever. What a shame.” 

Angus shot him a playful look. “Well I’m going back tomorrow and you can’t stop me.”

“Those are some pretty big words from someone who doesn’t even come up to my waist. But if that’s how you’re gonna be about it then fine. I suppose I won’t stop you.” Taako said. They had reached home when suddenly Taako decided to take a short detour. He purposely kept walking down the street. Angus took a moment to catch up to him from when he’d moved to go towards the apartment. 

“Um where are we going?” Angus asked.

“You don’t think we’re gonna pass up this excuse to celebrate do you? It’s not every day you start school for the first time.” Taako said like it was obvious. Angus caught on quickly and his eyes lit up. 

“Are we going to the ice cream parlor?” he gasped.

“Yep. Any chance you’ll consider getting a respectable flavor this time?” he teased. 

“Nope,” Angus said cheerfully.

The ice cream parlor was set up about five blocks away from their apartment complex and sat across from a tiny little park. It was traditional for them to go there for “special occasions” which ranged from actual celebration worthy events to flimsy excuses to go treat themselves. Today was undoubtedly celebration worthy though. 

Once they got there they fell easily into their usual routine. Taako ordered salted caramel for himself and mint chocolate chip for Angus. They then took their ice cream and sat at a park bench across the street, enjoying the last of the summer weather. 

“So what all did you do today anyways?” Taako asked as Angus tried to stop ice cream from dripping down his hands. He took a moment to lick his fingers clean before he answered.

“We mostly just did introductions and stuff. They showed us where all the stuff in the classroom was and they showed us around the school too.”

“What was your favorite part?” Taako asked. 

“The library was pretty cool. I really liked the music room though. They had lots of different instruments out for us to try. They said when we get to fifth grade we can start doing band.”

“I’m not raising a bard now am I?” Taako teased.

“Bards aren’t the only ones who learn instruments dad,” was Angus’ exasperated reply. 

“I’m just saying. This is a wizard only household,” he said. “You ready to go Ango?”

Angus stuffed the last bite of his cone into his mouth and nodded in response. Taako stared at Angus for a moment before laughing.

“Did you actually eat any of that pumpkin or did you just smear it all over your face?” Taako asked, grabbing Angus’ face and wiping it clean with a napkin. Angus just huffed at him tried in vain to squirm out of his grasp. Once Taako deemed him clean enough they started back on their way home. Taako’s mind wandered a bit as Angus told him more about his day. It had sounded like he really had enjoyed going to school. If it made him that happy then Taako could work on being more ok with it. It’d be hard for awhile but that was just part of parenting he supposed. 

 

Angus had been attending school for a few months now and he still seemed to like it well enough. He liked seeing his friends and being in class but it seemed like there was something missing. He finally put together what it was when Angus brought home some of the assignments he’d done. Angus wasn’t being challenged enough. He already knew a lot of what he was learning. Taako had worked with him on a lot of it when he showed interest in reading and writing when he was younger. And even if he hadn’t Angus was a fast learner. He needed something more challenging to keep his attention. 

Taako didn’t know what to do to solve this though. It was way too early to consider having him skip a grade, he’d only just started going to school. He could get him a tutor but he didn’t want Angus to spend all of his time working. He needed time to just be a kid too. Maybe he could just start small. Just having one thing to work on would probably be fine for now. 

“Ango,” he said to him over dinner one night. “If you could learn one thing that you’re not already learning in school what would it be?”

“Just one?” Angus asked. Taako rolled his eyes at him. What a little nerd. “Well...I think I’d really like to be able to do magic like you do,” he finally settled on. 

“Magic? Hell yeah boychik you’d be great at that. I bet you inherited my magic skills too.” Taako said.

“Dad I think it’s time I told you...I’m adopted.” Angus said with complete seriousness. Taako burst out laughing at that. 

“Well I was gonna offer to start teaching you magic but if you’re gonna sass me like that…”

“Wait really?” Angus asked excitedly. 

“Yeah sure. If you want to anyways.” Taako replied

“I do!” he said quickly.

“Alright then we can start after I clean up dinner if you want. If you eat the rest of your veggies that is.” Angus was suddenly far less enthusiastic about learning magic.

“But they’re gross,” he whined. 

“Too bad,” Taako said unsympathetically as he moved to clear his plate. “Besides, wizards need the proper nutrition or their magic stops working. Everybody knows that Ango.”

Angus shot him a look which said he didn’t believe him for a second. He did finish eating though so Taako counted it as a win. Angus went and rinsed his plate while Taako put the rest of the dishes in the dishwasher. Deeming the kitchen good enough, he lead Angus into the living room for their impromptu magic lesson. 

“Alright before we start I’ve gotta give you a little warning. Magic is complex and it’s not always that intuitive. You know what that means?” Angus shook his head no. “It means that you can’t always just think your way through it. It’s gotta be something you feel too. You might not get it right away, and that’s ok. Just don’t get discouraged if it’s hard at first ok?”

“Ok,” Angus agreed.

“Cool. We’re gonna start with a simple cantrip. It’s called Mage Hand. You know what that one is right?” Taako asked.

“Yeah that’s the one you use to grab stuff when you’re too lazy to get up.” Angus responded.

“That’s right except I could’ve done without the lazy comment,” Taako scolded playfully. “Let’s work on the hand movements first.”

They spent the next couple hours doing that. Taako walked Angus through all the steps in detail and then demonstrated it a few times. Then he let Angus try doing it himself. They spent a lot of time correcting Angus’ form and discussing what he should be focusing on when casting. It was hard to teach some of the more instinctual parts of magic but Taako did his best. After a while though he could see Angus getting frustrated and he knew they needed to call it. It was close to his bedtime anyways. 

“I think that’s enough for tonight Angus. We can work on it some more tomorrow,” Taako told him. 

“No wait! I can get it just let me try a few more times!” Angus insisted.

“No can do kiddo. Wizards need their sleep. Besides I told you it probably wouldn’t happen right away right? You just gotta give it some time,” Taako said gently.

“But I can do it!” Yup Angus was getting grumpy. It was definitely his bedtime. 

“Come on boychik. If we keep trying to do magic we won’t have time for a bedtime story. You don’t wanna miss that do you?” Angus hesitated for a moment before shaking his head no.

“Then let’s go get ready for bed ok?” Taako said, reaching out towards Angus.

“Ok,” Angus muttered as he took the hand that was offered to him and allowed himself to be lead towards his room. They went their separate ways to get ready for bed and met back up in Angus’ room. Angus crawled under the covers and handed Taako a book, the latest in a long line of mystery novels. Taako sat beside him on the bed and slung an arm over Angus’ shoulders, letting the boy bury into his side and watch as he read. They only got through a chapter tonight before he noticed Angus starting to nod off. He bookmarked their page and set the book aside. Taako gently removed himself from his son’s grasp, moving him to lay down on the bed and pulling the covers up to his chin. He brushed his hand through his hair and pressed a kiss to his temple. 

“Goodnight Angus,” he whispered.

“G’night,” Angus mumbled sleepily. Taako smiled down fondly at him for a moment before walking out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him.


	7. Boy Detective

It all started with Caleb Cleveland. Angus was always on the lookout for a new mystery novel. He finished books so fast that it was hard to keep up with. Taako had been passing by the bookstore on his way home from work and saw them advertising the next big children’s book: Caleb Cleveland Kid Cop. He figured it might be something Angus would enjoy so he bought it on a whim. That had been where he’d gone wrong.

Angus adored the book. It couldn’t have more perfectly catered to his interests. A young boy about Angus’ age going on thrilling adventures and solving mysteries? The kid didn’t stand a chance. Angus loving the book wasn’t the problem. In fact, at first it had been really cute listening to his son talk endlessly about his new favorite hero. But then he’d started getting ideas. 

Caleb Cleveland was a ten year old kid working for the militia. Angus was an eight year old who had got it in his head that he could do the exact same thing. Taako had indulged him when he’d thought he was just being imaginative. But then the kid went and solved a cold case. After that the militia was absolutely enamoured with Angus, and he seemed pretty sure that they’d let him work with them if he kept proving himself. And there was the problem. His babiest boy wanted to go investigate actual crime and the militia wasn’t going to stop him. Taako had no idea what to do about that.

He couldn’t let him, right? Angus was just a kid. Sure he was a genius and a pretty decent magic user but that was beside the point. Crime scenes were no place for a baby like him. He’d be in danger pretty much all the time. And the kid may be smart but he can be overconfident sometimes. Taako wasn’t sure if he could trust him to walk away if something was too dangerous. 

On the other hand, if he didn’t let Angus do this it would break his heart. That wasn’t an excuse to jeopardize his safety, but if there was any way to make this work he felt like he should consider it. Besides, Taako had done stuff that was just as dangerous when he was growing up and he didn’t even have anyone looking out for him. Angus was a lot smarter than him at that age so he’d probably be fine. Taako pondered all this while pacing aimlessly around the living room in the ethereal plane. Angus was sat on the couch, concentrating hard with his wand in hand. They’d been working on Blink for the past few days but it still seemed to be tripping him up. With all the excitement from solving that cold case the kid was probably too distracted to cast properly. Taako Blinked back to the material plane, appearing on the couch next to Angus. 

“Your getting sloppy boychik. You gotta move your wand more precisely or nothing else you do is gonna matter,” Taako told him. 

“Sorry Dad,” Angus said a little sheepishly. He tried again and his form looked much better, but he still wasn’t getting results. Taako plucked the wand out of his hands after another failed attempt. 

“Alright kid talk to me. What’s on your mind? Cause it certainly isn’t magic.” Angus looked away a little guiltily at that. 

“I just...I just think if you’d let me do it I’d be good at working with the militia.” Well it looked like they were both thinking about the same thing then. 

“Angus, the issue isn’t that I don’t think you would be good at it,” Taako said. “The problem is that it’s dangerous. You’re still a little kid, and I know you don’t like to think about it, but I’m your dad and I have to think about it. You get that I’m just trying to keep you safe right?”

“I know you are, but I would be safe! I’d be super careful and I wouldn’t do anything too dangerous. The militia would look out for me. And even if I got in trouble you taught me really well how to defend myself with magic,” Angus said quickly. He was giving him those puppy dog eyes now that Taako could never resist. Where did this kid learn to manipulate people like that anyways? Oh wait, it was from him. 

“Alright listen...if you can tell me in detail how you’re gonna stay safe during these cases...I’ll think about it,” Taako said. 

“Really?” Angus asked, immediately perking up. 

“Yeah but this better be good kid. Walk me through it. How exactly are you gonna investigate without getting hurt or whatever.”

“Ok well...I could take lower profile cases? Then there wouldn’t be as much risk in the first place,” Angus suggested. Taako nodded, motioning for him to go on. 

“I’d make sure you knew where I was gonna be. We could schedule calls and if I missed one you’d know if I was in trouble and could come get me.” 

“We’d definitely be doing that but that still implies you could be in danger. What if I don’t get to you fast enough?” Taako asked. 

“Maybe you or someone from the militia could come with me? I don’t know. But if I’m being honest, I think that no matter what we do there’s a chance I’ll be in danger. And even if that’s true, I think that I can handle myself. You and me can work on magic more so that I’ll be better prepared for it but… I think that I’d be ok,” Angus said. 

Taako took a moment before answering. “I’ll think it over. But if I decide that you shouldn’t do it, it’s because I think it what’s best for you, ok?”

“Ok,” Angus agreed.

“Perfect. Now do you think you can focus enough to cast Blink after all that?” Angus got a determined look on his face and scooted forwards on the couch, getting ready to go back to casting. It still took him awhile, but with a little guidance Angus finally managed to cross over to the ethereal plane. After getting in a few more successful tries for practice, the magic lesson was declared over. Taako got to work on making cookies to celebrate while Angus carefully added Blink to his spellbook. Once they’d properly celebrated the learning of a new spell, they called it a night and went to bed. 

Taako didn’t sleep much that night. Their conversation had given him a lot to think about. Having safeguards for the worst case scenario was good, but would it be enough? They could prepare for the worst all they wanted but it wouldn’t stop it from happening. Anything they could do would just be damage control. So what it really came down to was whether or not Taako trusted Angus to stay safe on his own. It was a big question. Angus was an incredibly talented kid. He was observant, unbelievably smart, and he wasn’t half bad with magic. He could hold his own pretty well. That might not be enough to protect him though. 

He could feel himself starting to nod off. In his last moments of consciousness he remembered the look on Angus’ face they’d talked earlier. He’d never seen him want something as badly as he wanted this. That was his last thought as he finally gave in to sleep. 

 

Taako woke up unusually early the next day. He tried to let the calming rituals of Saturday morning keep his mind from racing. It didn't work but it was worth a shot. Once he was about halfway done with the pancakes he’d been making Angus joined him in the kitchen, scrubbing sleepily at his eyes and wrapped tightly in his favorite red blanket. Instead of taking his place at the table he made his way over to Taako, wrapping him up in a hug and burying his face in his side. 

“Good morning to you too,” Taako chuckled. He ran his free hand absently through the boy’s hair. Angus got clingy when he was tired. It seemed like they were both kept up late after their conversation yesterday. Once the pancakes were finished he gently pried Angus from his side, handing him his plate. They both made their way to the table and began to eat in comfortable silence. After a moment, Taako finally decided to speak up.

“So I thought about this a lot last night and if you really wanna do the whole detective thing then I guess I won’t stop you,” he said. Angus immediately looked more awake.

“Really?” he asked. 

“Yeah really. There’s gonna be a lot of conditions though. Just like, so many conditions. The biggest of which being that I might change my mind about this later if I think it’s too dangerous and you’re not going to argue with me about it,” Taako warned. 

“Got it,” Angus replied.

“I need to know where you are at all times and you have to be close enough that I can get to you if I have to. Also, you’re gonna call me every 30 minutes while you’re out investigating.”

“30 minutes seems like a lot,” said Angus.

“You wanna do this or not?” Taako said, raising an eyebrow at him. 

“Every 30 minutes is fine,” Angus quickly amended.

“Good. We’ll figure out the rest of the details later. Just promise me you’ll actually stay safe ok? If something is too much for you to handle you’ll walk away?”

“I promise,” Angus said.

“Alright. Now finish your breakfast. You better believe we’re doubling down on magic lessons now that you’re doing this. No more slacking off.” Angus just laughed at that and nodded his agreement. 

“Hey dad? Thank you for letting me do this. It really means a lot to me,” Angus said after a moment.

“Don’t get all mushy on me Ango, it’s too early for that,” Taako said, but the soft smile on his face took all the heat out of his words. As they finished eating their breakfast, Angus talked excitedly about what sorts of adventures he’d have as a detective while Taako did his best to believe that he was making the right decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one is so short. I've got finals next week so I haven't had a lot of time to write this week. Once I'm done with those I'll be able to post more regularly again though


	8. Aren't You a Little Young to Fight a Cult Single-Handedly?

Kravitz likes to think that nothing could surprise him at work anymore. He’s been a reaper for a long time after all. The things he deals with on a daily basis range from weird to downright horrifying. At this point there was very little that could catch him off guard. 

Nothing, however, could prepare him for the sight of a little boy with his wand drawn, facing down two necromancers alone in the entrance of a cave. He seemed to be alright for the moment, if just a little beaten up. One of the necromancers was getting ready to cast though so Kravitz quickly materialized his scythe, bringing him down with a single hit. The second one rounded on him but he dealt with them just as efficiently. 

That left him alone with the boy. The one who was currently staring at him wide eyed, looking torn between being scared or relieved. Oh, right. Skin. Children prefer it when you have that. Kravitz’s face materialized as dismissed his scythe and crouched down to the boy’s height, mindful to keep a little distance between them so he wouldn’t scare him off. 

“Hello there love,” he said softly. “Are you alright?” The kid shot him a suspicious look before answering.

“I’m fine,” he said slowly. “Who are you though? Why are you here?”

“My name’s Kravitz and I’m an emissary of the Raven Queen. I was sent here by her to stop this cult. And what about you?” he asked. 

“My name’s Angus and I’m here to stop them too,” he said. Kravitz just stared at the kid in shock. What did this toddler think he was gonna do to a cult of necromancers? Where were this kid’s parents?

“Alright, listen Angus. I think it’s time for you to go home,” he said. 

“I can’t go home without evidence that there’s a link between this cult and a series of missing persons reports,” said Angus. This whole situation just made less and less sense.

“Shouldn’t the militia be investigating something like that?” 

“That’s what they hired me to do,” Angus said. Of course they did. 

“Ok, I’m not asking this time,” Kravitz said, standing back up to look down on the boy. “I need to go deal with the rest of this cult. Go home before you get hurt.”

“I just told you I can’t,” Angus said angrily. Kravitz opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by the sound of a stone of farspeech buzzing with an incoming call. Angus hurriedly pulled at the chain around his neck, fishing it out from under his shirt and accepting the call.

“Uh hello?” he greeted tentatively. From the guilty look on his face Kravitz could tell he was in trouble before the other person even spoke. Good. A kid his age had no business being here. 

“Angus you better have a very good reason for not calling me,” the other voice warned. Angus winced at that. 

“I’m sorry. I just got distracted,” he said. Kravitz noticed he very deliberately left out that he’d been in the middle of a fight. 

“You’re not hurt then?” the other person, presumably Angus’ father, asked.

“Nope I’m fine,” Angus said. 

“Actually,” Kravitz cut in. “He’s a little beaten up from fighting necromancers. You should probably come pick him up.” If Kravitz weren’t already dead the look Angus shot him probably would have done him in. 

“Angus is that true?” asked Angus’ dad in a voice which suggested that it better not be. 

“Umm...no?” Angus tried. “I mean it’s a little true. But I’m only a little banged up. And really it was only two necromancers so it wasn’t even that big of a deal and you shouldn’t worry about it,” he added quickly.

“Yeah, no. I’m coming to get you,” the voice declared.

“No! Dad I can do this just give me a chance!” Angus pleaded. 

“I gave you a chance pumpkin. And then you got hurt so you’re coming home. Stay put. I’ll be there soon. And don’t think we’re not gonna talk about you lying to me,” the voice warned before the line went dead. Angus just stared at the stone for a moment before storming off to the far side of the cave and sitting against the wall with a huff. Kravitz watched him pout for a moment before sighing and joining him against the wall. 

“What are you doing?” the boy asked sharply. 

“I’m waiting with you until your father gets here,” he explained.

“Why?”

“Is it so hard to believe that I think you might get into trouble on your own?” Kravitz asked. Angus didn’t grace that with a response. He just continued to glare daggers at the ground. They sat in tense silence for a moment before Angus seemed to decide that he couldn’t take it anymore. 

“Can I ask you something?” he asked. 

“Sure.”

“Do all of the Raven Queen’s emissary’s fake a cockney accent or is it just you?” 

Kravitz could only splutter for a moment, looking for an answer. Surprisingly, no one had ever called him out on that before. The longer he struggled the more smug the kid looked.

“I’m not--” he started.

“Yes you are,” said Angus, cutting him off. 

“Alright so maybe I was faking the accent,” Kravitz admitted in a non affected voice. “It’s just a uh, a fun little character trait I’ve got.” Angus gave him an incredibly judgemental look but didn’t press further. 

“So what does an emissary of the Raven Queen do anyways?” Angus asked instead.

Kravitz launched into an explanation about his job as a reaper and the laws governing life and death. Angus often interjected with questions, taking advantage of the chance to learn more about the astral plane. They got so caught up in this discussion that it felt like no time at all had passed before Angus’ dad arrived. Kravitz looked up at the sound of footsteps and his artificial breath caught in his throat. Standing before him, looking incredibly unhappy, was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen. Bottle blonde hair framed the soft features of the man’s face. His skin was dark and freckles dusted his cheeks and nose. He was wearing the most eclectic outfit Kravitz had ever seen but was somehow pulling it off flawlessly. He couldn’t take his eyes away.

His staring was completely one sided however because the man didn’t even spare him a glance. He seemed to only have eyes for his son, marching straight over to him and assessing the damage. After a quick once over he crouched down to the boy’s level, thumb brushing over a bruise forming on his cheek. 

“Are you ok?” he asked worriedly. 

“I’m fine Dad. Really,” Angus told him. The man looked at him for a few seconds more before he seemed to decide to believe him. 

“Good,” he said. “‘Cause we’re going home and you’re definitely getting too big for me to carry you the whole way.” The man rose to his feet and held out a hand for Angus to help him do the same. Finally he seemed to notice Kravitz sitting there. 

“And who exactly are you?” he asked him. 

“I’m um--my name’s Kravitz,” he managed as he rose to his feet. Angus watched him struggling amusedly from his father’s side. Eventually he decided to take pity on him. 

“He’s the one who protected me from the necromancers,” Angus explained. “He was waiting with me for you to show up to make sure I was safe.”

“Really?” the man asked. Suddenly Kravitz could feel that he had his full attention. It was incredibly intimidating, watching the man scrutinize him. Kravitz squirmed under the attention. 

“Well thank you so much for keeping an eye on Ango here for me Kravitz. If you want, I’d love to take you out for coffee or whatever sometime. You know, as thanks,” he said flirtatiously. Kravitz could feel his face turning red. He didn’t even know he could do that. 

“S-sure. I’d like that,” he stuttered. 

“Great. You got a stone of farspeech?” Kravitz just handed it over in response. The man programmed his frequency into it and passed it back. 

“Cool. My name is Taako by the way. Feel free to call me anytime bubbeleh and we’ll get that date set up.”

“Date?” Kravitz squeaked, but he’d already lost Taako’s attention. 

“Come on angel let’s get you home,” Taako said as he gently pushed Angus out of the cave. The boy went willingly and Kravitz stared after them as they walked away. 

He gave himself a moment to try and process what exactly just happened. Did that kid actually work for the militia? And, perhaps more shockingly, did he actually just get asked out? It was all too much for him to deal with and it was starting to give him a headache. Instead he turned his attention to the actual reason he was here. That all could wait until the rest of this cult were locked away in the stockade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I'm gonna procrastinate studying you all might as well get a chapter out of it I guess


	9. Taako's Dating the Grim Reaper

A week after the incident with Angus’ case Taako found himself walking into a little coffee shop in downtown Neverwinter. A quick glance around told him that Kravitz hadn’t arrived yet so he ordered a drink and settled into a table by the window. The shop was mostly empty at the moment. He sat there for awhile and enjoyed the quiet atmosphere while sipping absently at his drink before his date finally arrived. 

When Kravitz walked through the door he already looked a little flustered. Taako couldn’t tell if it was because he was running late or because of the date itself. He gave him a small wave and smile before ordering his drink and joining him. 

“Hey there handsome,” Taako greeted him. Maybe he should take it easy on the poor guy but it was much more fun to watch him stutter. 

“Um hello Taako,” he responded as he took the seat across from him. 

“Thanks again for looking out for Angus the other day by the way,” Taako said. 

“Oh, it was no problem. Actually I wanted to ask you about that. When I asked him what he was doing there he said he was investigating for the militia?” 

“Yeah he does that,” Taako said dismissively. “The kid’s a genius so they look over the fact that he’s a baby.” 

Kravitz stared at him in shock. “They really let him do that? But it’s not safe.”

“We’re all looking out for him,” Taako said. “Not that it makes me feel a lot better about it.”

“Why do you let him do it then?” Kravitz asked. He couldn’t imagine letting such a young child do something so dangerous.

Taako shrugged. “It’s what makes him happy.” He said simply. “Speaking of the kid, he was telling me that you’re some sort of emissary?”

“Yeah I am,” Kravitz said. “I act as a sort of bounty hunter for the Raven Queen. A grim reaper if you will.”

“Angus said you were all skeletal when you met,” Taako said. Kravitz held his hand out towards him and let the skin evaporate away, exposing the bone beneath. 

“Woah,” Taako muttered under his breath. He reached out and took his hand in his own, toying with his skeletal fingers and running his hand over the bones. Kravitz did his best not to blush while he did so. After this went on for awhile though he could feel his cheeks burning. He cleared his throat and Taako seemed caught off guard by the action. He dropped his hand suddenly and leaned back in his seat, carefully schooling his face back into indifference. Kravitz rematerialized the skin across his hand as they both searched for something to say. 

“It sounds like Angus told you a bit about my job but I never caught what you do for yours,” Kravitz finally settles on. 

“Nothing quite as exciting as bounty hunting,” Taako said. “I run a bakery here in Neverwinter. A very good one too.”

“Is that so?” Kravitz asked with a smile. 

“It sure is. I wasn’t a famous chef for nothing,” Taako boasted. 

“Famous?” Kravitz asked.

“Yeah. I had a cooking show for awhile. The guy who helped me was a real piece of work though. I finally had the show of my dreams and he managed to make even that feel miserable.”

“Why did you keep him around? Couldn’t you have just hired someone else?” Kravitz asked.

Taako stared down at the table, anxiously twisting the rings on his fingers. “Because I was afraid no one else would have me,” he said simply. Kravitz didn’t know what to say. He certainly hadn’t been expecting that. 

“Wow that was a very honest answer,” he said. 

“Well, I mean that’s the truth,” Taako responded. “Anyway I didn’t stick with that guy for very long. A couple years after the show started I found Angus and that was the end of Sizzle it Up.”

“What do you mean you found him?” Kravitz asked. 

“Look my dude if it’s all the same to you, it’s kind of a long story and I’d rather not, um…” Taako trailed off. 

Kravitz smiled at him reassuringly. “I understand. I didn’t mean to pry,” he said. 

“Nah it’s cool,” Taako said, waving him off. “Hey listen I gotta run and pick up the kid. This was fun though. Can I see you again sometime?” he asked as he stood to leave.

“Yeah I’d like that,” Kravitz said, unable to keep the pleased look off his face. Taako smiled back at him. 

“Cool. I’ll call you later,” Taako said. And with a wave over his shoulder, he was gone. 

 

When Taako had first asked Kravitz out he hadn’t really expected it to go anywhere. Sure he was hot and he’d looked after his son when he hadn’t needed to, but Taako just didn’t do serious relationships. That was especially true now that he had a kid to think about. Having a bunch of random men coming in and out of Angus’ life wouldn’t be good for him. But now he was at a point where he needed to reevaluate.

He’d been seeing Kravitz a lot lately. He kept expecting to start losing interest in him or for something to go wrong but it never happened. If anything he started to enjoy their dates even more. Which was good, but it also caused a problem for him. The more serious he got about Kravitz, the more he knew that he needed to have a talk with Angus. If Kravitz was going to be apart of their lives, the two of them needed to talk about what exactly that meant. 

Taako resolved to tell him after an especially nice dinner date one night. Kravitz had opened a portal for him to Angus’ friends house so that he could pick him up. He’d offered to portal them both back home too but Taako declined. He needed to talk to Angus alone. 

He knocked on the door and exchanged pleasantries with Ava’s mom while Angus said his goodbyes. Then they began to make their way back home. 

“How was your date?” Angus asked him as they walked.

“It was good,” Taako replied distractedly. “Hey Ango you liked Kravitz right?”

“Yeah I liked him. He was really nice even though he was kind of dorky. Why?”

“It’s just...I’ve been seeing him a lot lately and I really like him. I thought that now that I’m dating someone maybe we should set some ground rules.”

“What do you mean?” Angus asked. 

“I mean that you’re my number one priority and if any relationship I have makes you feel uncomfortable in any way, I want you to tell me. If you ever don’t want me to go out or don’t want someone to come over or whatever, I want to know. Got it?” he asked. 

“Got it,” Angus agreed. “And thanks Dad.”

Taako smiled softly and pulled Angus to his side, ruffling his hair a little. “Don’t thank me for showing you common decency kid, jeez,” he said, only half teasing. They spent the rest of the walk catching each other up on their nights. As he listened to his son chatter on, Taako was completely and overwhelmingly happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finals are finally over so hopefully we'll get back to more regular updates


	10. Raven's Roost

Magnus carefully set his rocking chair in the back of the cart and looked it over one last time. He’d been to lots of smaller competitions before but this was the Continental Craftsmen Showcase. If he won this he’d finally be able to call himself a master carpenter. He had a real chance of winning too. He couldn’t wait to get to Neverwinter. 

A hand interlacing with his own shook him from his thoughts. Julia leaned into his side, admiring his work with him and squeezing his hand reassuringly. 

“You’re gonna win you know,” she told him confidently. “You’re chair is so good they won’t even mind the old lady smell.”

Magnus chuckled a little and squeezed her hand in return. “You think so?” he asked.

“I know so. And I’m never wrong,” she told him.

“Well I can’t argue with that,” he said. Magnus turned to face her and say his goodbyes when he noticed the bag at her feet. 

“What’s that for?” he asked. 

“I’m coming with you,” she declared as she scooped the bag up off the ground and loaded it into the cart. 

“Jules you hate travelling that far,” he pointed out. 

“Yeah but Neverwinter has that really famous bakery that I’ve always wanted to try,” she said. 

“I could just bring you something?” Magnus offered.

Julia walked up to him and cupped his face in her hands. “Magnus, that’s very sweet of you to offer, but we both know that by the time you get back to Raven’s Roost there won’t be anything left for me.” Magnus laughed at that, pulling her hands from his face and pressing a kiss to her cheek. 

“That’s fair,” he conceded. “Do we need anything else before we head out?”

“I think we’ve got everything,” she said as she scanned over the cart one last time. 

“Let’s get going then,” Magnus said excitedly. Julia walked over to poke her head in to the entrance of the Hammer and Tongs. 

“Dad we’re leaving!” she called. Moments later Steven joined them outside to see them off. 

“You two have a safe trip now, ok?” Steven said as he pulled Julia into a hug. She caught Magnus’ eye over his shoulder and rolled her eyes fondly at her dad’s worrying. 

“We’ll be find dad,” she told him, playing up her exasperation. Steven chuckled and moved to hug Magnus as well, giving him a hearty pat on the back. 

“I expect you to come back here with first place alright?” Steven said. Magnus smiled brightly at that. 

“I will,” he promised. 

“Good,” Steven said with a nod. “I’ll see you both next week.” 

Magnus and Julia hopped in the cart and waved goodbye to Steven one last time before they headed out towards Neverwinter. 

 

After easily winning the competition and finally getting to eat at the bakery, Magnus and Julia were eager to get home. Magnus had been right, Julia really did hate making such long trips. They had travelled as fast as they possibly could on their way back and were finally approaching Raven’s Roost. Once they got closer though, they could tell that something was wrong.

The craftsmen corridor was gone. The place where it once stood, the place they called home, had been reduced to nothing but dust and debris. Julia screamed at the sight of it and took off running towards the wreckage. Magnus followed closely behind. 

“No,” Julia gasped as she took in the destruction that surrounded her. “No this can’t--it can’t just be…” she was cut off as she choked out a sob. She fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands, overcome completely by grief and disbelief. 

Magnus slowly made his way towards the rubble in stunned silence. He’d just made a home here. How could it be taken from him so suddenly? Unable to accept this loss, he pressed forwards, searching for any signs of life or familiarity. It was a lost cause though. The only thing he’d managed to find was the sign which used to hang above the Hammer and Tongs. He picked it up and clutched it to his chest, letting his vision blur over with tears. He should have been here. He should have protected them. 

Not knowing what else to do, he returned to Julia’s side. He offered her a hand and she rose to her feet, letting Magnus pull her into a tight hug. For what felt like forever they just held each other and wept. How could they have left this town which had promised them such an amazing future and returned to nothing? What were they going to do now?

After awhile the silence which surrounded them was broken by the sound of a cart making its way down the path. When Magnus looked up he caught sight of a familiar face. He’d met Anthony briefly during the rebellion. They had never been more than acquaintances, but he was happy to see anyone he knew alive at the moment. Anthony left the cart and came running towards them immediately. 

“Glad to see you’re both ok,” he said quietly once he reached them.

“You too,” Magnus said. “Tony what happened?”

“Kalen happened,” he said. “A couple days after you guys left he came and bombed the craftsmen corridor. As far as I’ve heard there weren’t any survivors. I’m so sorry you guys.”

“Kalen did this?” Julia asked.

“Yeah. And after that everyone got too scared to stick around. Raven’s Roost has been evacuated. It’s nothing but a ghost town now.”

“Where are you going to go now?” Magnus asked. 

“I’ve got some some family out in Goldcliff,” Tony said. “I’m gonna stay there until I figure out what to do next. You guys are welcome to come with me.”

Magnus and Julia both exchanged a look. “We don’t really have anywhere else to go,” Magnus pointed out.

“I think we’ll take you up on that Tony,” Julia decided. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” Tony said. 

With that the three of them made their way back towards their carts. As they walked Magnus couldn’t help but stare at Julia as he tried not to think about how close he’d been to losing her as well. She caught him watching her right as the tears started to well up in his eyes again. She tried to give him a reassuring smile but she was crying again too. 

“We’re gonna be ok,” she whispered in a fragile voice. Magnus could only nod in response and hope that she was right. 

 

It hadn’t taken long after the attack on Raven’s Roost for Magnus and Julia to decide to hunt down Kalen. They had let him walk free the first time but this was unforgivable. Unfortunately though, he was doing a good job hiding himself. They’d been searching for months. Today they were supposed to meet a contact out in Phandalin. Well, specifically Julia was supposed to meet him. Magnus had a mission of his own to complete. 

“Why can’t I be the one to talk to the contact?” Magnus whined as they walked into the Lonely Hearts Cantina. 

“Because we both know I’m better at getting information,” Julia said cheerfully. “Besides, you’re better at finding odd jobs. You’ve got the whole folk hero vibe working for you.”

“I do have a lot of rustic hospitality,” he conceded. 

“Oh I think I see our dude. I gotta go. But good luck and make lots of money.” Julia told him before giving him a quick kiss goodbye.

“Good luck to you too. Not that you need it,” he said. Julia gave him one last smile before taking off towards the back of the cantina, leaving Magnus alone. He grabbed a table of his own for a moment while he tried to figure out what he was going to do. It’s been awhile since they’d had to do odd jobs like this but money was getting tight and they needed to do a supply run soon. 

After a moment of waiting he saw three figures gathered around a bulletin board chattering amongst themselves about ‘the last job they’d ever need to take.’ That seemed like as good a place to start as any. 

 

After Magnus took that job things just got weirder and weirder. First there were the people he’d accidentally recruited to help him. There was the evocation professor who was seemingly a walking fire hazard and then the creepy old dwarven cleric. Despite their bad first impressions, Magnus actually found that he got along really well with these two. He’d even been having fun until all the stuff with the gauntlet happened. He was glad he’d thought to call Julia and tell her to get out of Phandalin before it was too late. He only wished he could have saved the rest of the town as well. 

As if things weren’t weird enough, after all that Killian brought them up to the moon to be recruited for some weird secret organization. Now he didn’t know what to do. On one hand, whatever that gauntlet was, it was incredibly dangerous. If he was really one of the few people who could do something to stop weapons like that then he felt like he needed to do it. 

On the other hand, he and Julia had a mission of their own to complete and they were supposed to be working on it together. Maybe the fate of the world didn’t depend on it, but it was still important. Knowing he couldn’t make this decision on his own, Magnus stepped away for a moment to call his wife and to catch her up on the situation. 

“It sounds like you want to do it,” she told him after listening to him explain. 

“I kind of do,” he admitted. “But I won’t really be able to help you search for Kalen if I do this. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to see you much.”

“I think we could make it work. I can keep working on finding Kalen on my own while you’re away. We can call each other all the time and you can come see me whenever you’re free,” she suggested. 

“Would you really be ok with that though?” he asked. 

“Well it’s not ideal,” she said. “But if it’s really what you want to do then I think I’d be ok with it.”

Magnus thought it over for a moment. “I think I want to do it,” he said.

“Ok. We can talk it over more the next time you’re around. Is there any way around the whole static thing?” she asked. 

“The Director said she’d be willing to make an exception and inoculate you if I took the job,” Magnus told her.

“That sounds kind of ominous but ok. I’ll see you in a while then?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you soon,” Magnus said. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Bye Mags.”

“Bye Jules,” he said fondly before disconnecting the call. He was really going to do this then. He let himself freak out for just a second longer about what exactly he was getting himself into before turning around and walking back into the Director’s office. There was no turning back now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't going to do the whole Julia lives thing because I thought this fic is already really self indulgent but it's what the people wanted


	11. Murder on the Rockport Limited

Lup was still a little apprehensive about working for the Bureau. Sure she had been getting kind of bored with her job at the university but taking this job had been a pretty drastic change. She still wasn’t really even over how badly they’d messed up their first mission. The boys usually just laughed it off when it came up but she couldn’t do that. They’d just watched helplessly as an entire town had been reduced to glass. Not to mention that guy Barry who’d died. If she didn’t know better she’d say he looked just like…

Well, it didn’t matter who he looked like. They were both dead and she hadn’t saved either of them. Now all she could do was be more careful and hope this mission had less casualties than the last one. 

So far all they’d really done since they boarded the train was goof off and harass everyone they talked to. As long as they were still actually investigating, that was fine by Lup. She could really use the distraction anyways. One of the passengers in particular had caught her eye though. She really wanted to know what the fancy kid’s deal was. He was way too young to be on his own for one thing. He looked too well off to be homeless but that didn’t necessarily mean he was being taken care of. She really hoped she was worrying over nothing though. No kid deserved to be neglected like that. 

The lack of supervision wasn’t the only thing that caught her attention. Ever since they’d boarded the train he’d been eying them suspiciously. It was kind of unnerving really. It almost seemed like he was staring at her in particular too. She would understand him looking at the three of them--they were being pretty obnoxious--but why just her? No matter the reason Lup was starting to wonder just how much this kid knew about what was really going on. It was hard to worry though when Merle was failing to preach the word of Pan and Magnus was trying to accuse a little kid of murder because he liked reading. 

“What are your names?” Angus finally managed to ask them. 

“Well, um, like I said-” Merle began.

“I already heard your name, sir. Thank you for telling me it.”

“I’m Diddly,” Magnus replied.

“I’m Justine,” said Lup. 

“Diddly and Justine, those are two fabulous names. My name’s Angus!”

“What’s your last name, Angus?” Magnus asked.

The kid hesitated for a moment. “McDonald,” he said. Lup shot him a suspicious look. He was trying to look innocent but not quite hitting the mark. He had definitely just made that up. Why would he lie about his last name though?

“Angus, do you like magic tricks?” Merle asked.

“I do. I like them very much, my grandpa said he would take me to one in Neverwinter. He told me, he said ‘I’m going to take you to a magic trick!’ It didn’t make a lot of sense.” Angus said. 

“What’s your grandpa’s name?” Magnus asked

“My grandpa forgot his name. He’s very old,” Angus said. Lup was completely certain that nothing Angus had told them was true. She wasn’t even sure that Angus actually had a grandpa at this point. What was this kid hiding from them?

After Merle tried and failed to cast Zone of Truth on Angus he surprisingly just seemed to ignore it. The kid seemed smart though, there was no way he hadn’t realized a spell had been cast on him. Lup didn’t get a chance to wonder about what he was playing at before Angus’ attention was on her.

“Excuse me ma’am but you look an awful lot like someone I know. Would you happen to have any siblings or anything?” Angus asked. She hadn’t been expecting that.

“Sorry kid but I don’t have any family,” Lup told him. 

“It must just be a coincidence then,” Angus said, not looking entirely like he believed it. His attention was drawn away from her the buzzing of his watch.

“Excuse me but I have to make a call,” he told them. “But it was very nice to meet you all.” Angus ran off towards the sleeper cars as they said their half hearted goodbyes to him. 

“He’s definitely the bad guy,” Magnus told them confidently.

“I don’t know about that, but there’s definitely something up with him,” Lup replied. 

 

It turned out that Angus had known what was going on the whole time. Apparently he was some kind of boy detective hired by the city council. Lup wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t actually helped them solve the case. After realizing it was the engineer who had been killed and that Jenkins was the murder, they managed to wrap the mission up pretty quickly. It helped that they hadn’t even needed to fight him. They did almost crash the train though. Lup still felt bad about having to make Angus jump off a moving train but she didn’t know what else to do to keep him safe. He was fine anyways. 

Once everyone was safe and the train had been transported away they let Angus handle talking to the authorities while they got ready to head back to the base. Before they left Angus stopped them and gave them Jenkins compass and a can of pringles for their roommate. He then asked if he could speak with her privately. Lup agreed, both because she was curious and because she felt a little bit like she owed him after everything that happened. 

“Now that we can trust each other I just wanted to ask one more time if you have any family. It’s just, you look so much like my dad it doesn’t seem like it could be a coincidence,” Angus said. 

“Sorry little dude but I was telling the truth before. I really don’t have any family,” Lup told him.

“Ok I believe you,” Angus said. “It’s just so weird. You two could be twins you look so similar.”

“Huh that is weird. Where is your dad anyways? Shouldn’t he be here to take you to your grandpa?” she asked. 

“Oh I don’t actually have a grandpa,” Angus confessed. “I just didn’t want to draw extra attention to myself if you actually did know my dad. That’s why I didn’t mention I was related to the person you look like earlier either. It would have been hard to keep a low profile if you’d thought I was a family member of yours.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Lup said. “Is that why you made up a last name? Because your last name definitely isn’t McDonald.”

“No, I actually just don’t have one.” Angus said. “People always ask about it though so it’s easier to just make one up than explain that I don’t have one.”

“Yeah I get that. I don’t have one either,” Lup told him. Angus was looking at her like she was a puzzle he needed to solve again. She thought she was done with that look for the day.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Angus said. “It’s just, you look just like my dad and neither of you have last names. It just feels like that has to mean something.”

“I don’t know what to tell you kid,” Lup said. “Look, I got to go. Thanks for all the help and everything today. We probably couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Of course!” Angus said brightly. “If you guys ever run into any mysteries that you can’t solve, uh, just drop me a line, and uh, I-I’ll be there in a flash!” He handed her a business card which very simply read ‘Angus’ with a stone of farspeech number written below it. Lup tucked it away in her pocket even though she was fairly sure she’d never use it. The last thing she wanted was to drag this kid into even more danger. 

They said their goodbyes and Lup headed back towards Merle and Magnus. She couldn’t wait to hand over the relic and finally be done with this mission. Her mind wandered back to Angus as they headed towards the base. She hoped his dad really was taking care of him. He may have been hired to catch a serial killer but he was still a kid who needed supervision. She wouldn’t forgive him if he just let Angus live such a dangerous life without looking out for him, even if he was her doppleganger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you TAZscripts for saving my life this chapter


	12. Red Robe

Barry had knowing going into this that seeing his family again would hurt. This wasn’t the kind of thing he could have prepared himself for though. Even knowing what would happen, seeing them looking at him with fear rather than familiarity, it would be painful no matter what. Talking to them in Phandalin was different. At least he hadn’t had his memories then either. But talking to them now, when he knew they once called each other family, and they didn’t even trust him? It was unbearable. Nevertheless, he had to warn them. If Lucretia was gathering the relics then the Hunger would come after them again. She certainly wasn’t going to prepare them for it, so he’d have to do it himself.

“Are you afraid?” he rasped.

“No,” Lup said immediately. He had to stop himself from laughing at that. He should have known that he could never intimidate Lup. A part of him was grateful for it. If she were truly scared of him he didn’t think he’d be able to go through with this.

“You do not know how to be afraid,” he said.

“Well, probably not,” Magnus said. How could he get them to take this seriously? Barry began to project the images of those who had been affected by the relics.

“Gundren Rockseeker. Magic Brian. Jenkins. Sloane. Captain Bane. This is the true nature of man. The want, the hunger, it consumes everything it touches, it can’t be stopped or changed. It’s the end of everything. This is your first lesson.” And with that, he disappeared. 

If seeing them had been hard then leaving them was harder. He knew that he needed to get back to work though. If he wanted to be one step ahead of Lucretia then he didn’t have any time to waste. 

It would be a long trip back to Phandalin, which was bad because it meant that he was alone with his thoughts. Keeping busy had been his saving grace these past few years because it kept him from dwelling too much on his feelings. He was so lonely though. Going so suddenly from being surrounded by his family for one hundred years to being completely alone was more than he knew how to deal with. The weight of that loss never leaves him either. He carries it with him in every moment he’s without them. He was so tired. 

On days where it’s all too much for him to bear he wonders if he should have killed Lup that day. Sometimes he even wonders if he still should. He hates himself for thinking that, but he misses her so much. He can’t bring himself to do it though. He would only be dragging her into isolation with him. Besides, she would just go back to being miserable knowing she was separated from her brother. He wasn’t even sure she could stay stable as a lich without Taako. 

Even so, it was hard to keep those thoughts away. It only got worse each time he saw her. After talking to her just now and working with her in Phandalin he knew it’d only ever get harder to walk away. 

Thinking about Lup inevitably made him think about Lucretia. He didn’t know how to feel about her anymore. Lucretia was like a sister to him. He loves her so much and he misses her too. But is that enough to forgive her? She willingly betrayed them all and separated their whole family. She stole a century’s worth of memories from them and then just sent them off into the world. How could she do something like that? It wasn’t her place to decide what was best for them. They’d made a decision as a group. She had no right to go against it. Especially not in the way that she did. 

He wanted nothing more than to go back to the way they were before though. He didn’t want to hold a grudge against Lucretia. As long as he got his family back in the end he could learn to deal with the rest. It would be hard, and it would take him a long time to forgive her, but he couldn’t stand the thought of their relationship being ruined because of this. He couldn’t just throw one hundred years of loving her away because she’d messed up. Especially not when he knew she’d truly believed it was the only option. 

At least everyone had ended up happy for the most part. He wasn’t completely sure what happened to Davenport, and Merle’s situation could have turned out better, but the rest of them were doing ok. Lup had been an incredibly successful evocation teacher for awhile. It was obvious that she’d really loved it too. Magnus had gotten married which he still couldn’t believe. Merle doing better now that he’d been reunited with Lup and Magnus. And Taako, against all odds, was living a happy life in Neverwinter with his son. It was so strange to see them all making families and building lives for themselves that he wasn’t apart of. He should have been at Magnus’ wedding. He should have been an uncle to Angus. Instead he has to watch over them from afar, wondering if their lives will even fit back together once this is all over. 

He finally made it back to his cave in Phandalin and immediately got to work. As much as he hated it, he needed to get back to his human form soon. It made it harder to do any valuable research but he was too easy to track as a lich. At this point he wasn’t sure what Lucretia would do if she found him but he wasn’t going to take any chances. 

Once he’s gotten everything in order he sighs and pulls out his coin. He hates this part. The forgetting and the remembering over and over is unbearable. It was for his family though, so he took a moment to gather himself and then hit record.

“Your name is Barry Bluejeans. You are afraid of the dark. Your very favorite thing in the world is swimming in very cold water on a very hot day…”

He spent the next few minutes detailing out the plan for his future self before climbing into the tank. And if he sent himself to Taako’s bakery before any of the actual work, well, he’d say he’s earned that small comfort at least.


	13. Welcome to the Bureau of Balance

“Ango that letter is shady as hell. You realize that right?” Taako asked as he flipped the sign in the bakery window to open. 

“Of course I realize that. That’s why I have to go investigate it,” Angus huffed. He had his notes from a case spread out where he was sitting by the window. Angus liked to hang out and do work while Taako opened the shop sometimes. Usually Taako appreciated this, but right now he’d rather not be having this particular conversation. 

“Investigating is one thing. Accepting a cryptic invitation to join some weird cult is another,” Taako pointed out. 

“It’s the only way I’m going to get anywhere with this case though. The letter said that they had ways of inhibiting people’s memory. That’s why no one can remember the people they’re missing. If that’s true then I don’t have a chance of solving this without going there.” Angus said.

“Then walk away from the case!” Taako snapped. 

“I can’t do that!” Angus said, matching his tone. They were interrupted by the sound of the door opening. Taako turned his attention to the customer and saw the plainest looking man he’d ever laid eyes on. He was a little on the bigger side, and wearing a white t-shirt with blue jeans. If Taako had to guess, he’d say that was probably the only thing he ever wore.

“Um, am I interrupting something?” the man asked, shifting uncomfortably.

“Not at all,” Taako said as he moved behind the counter. “What can I get for you?”

“Can I get a, uh, a box of elderflower macaroons?” the man asked. 

“Sure thing my man,” Taako said as he started getting his order together.

“Hey, uh, I’ve got a quick hypothetical question for ya. First of all what’s your name kemosabe?” Taako asked.

“It’s Barry,” the man said warily.

“Ok Barry, let’s say hypothetically you’ve got a kid. If this kid got a creepy letter from some unnamed organization, would you let him go join it? Keep in mind this organization is almost definitely a cult,” Taako said a little too casually. Angus was glaring at him from across the room but he was resolutely ignoring him.

“Um, no? Of course not?” Barry said. Taako shot Angus a pointed look. 

“What if this kid was exceptionally capable and a bunch of people’s lives depended on it.” Angus chimed in. 

“You don’t know that,” Taako argued. 

“You don’t know that they don’t,” Angus shot back.

“Can I just get my macaroons please?” Barry asked.

Taako sighed deeply. “Yeah, here you go,” he said, passing him the box.

“Thanks,” Barry said. He slid some coins across the counter before quickly making his escape. Taako waited until the door closed behind him before addressing Angus again.

“This isn’t over,” he warned him. Angus didn’t grace that with a response. He just shot him a dirty look and went back to whatever he was doing. Taako rolled his eyes and retreated further into the shop to fall back on his favorite coping mechanism. Stress baking had never failed him yet. 

 

Taako sighed dramatically has he dropped down onto the couch next to Kravitz, leaning heavily against his side. Kravitz shifted so that he could more comfortably support his weight. After a few months of dating he was finally getting used to his boyfriends antics. 

“Something on your mind dear?” Kravitz teased. Taako smiled up at him briefly before getting lost in thought again.

“Yeah kind of. Angus got this weird letter a few days ago from some top secret organization. Apparently they have ways of keeping people from knowing information and it’s stopping him from solving a case. They also offered to give him access to all this restricted information if he agreed to become some sort of investigator for them. It’s all very fantasy illuminati. Unfortunately, it’s also exactly the sort of thing the kid would fall for.”

“That all sounds incredibly suspicious. I take it he wants to do it then?” Kravitz asked. Taako nodded.

“He sure does. We’ve been arguing about it for the past couple of days. I don’t know what I gotta do to make him take his own safety seriously,” Taako said.

“I’m sorry love,” Kravitz said sympathetically. 

“That kid cares too much for his own good. I’d feel better about all his detective stuff if he’d put himself first more often. I don’t know where he learned to be such a good person,” Taako said.

“Now hold on,” Kravitz interjected. “What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“Nothing, we’re just different is all. I’m not a good person like he is,” Taako said dismissively. Kravitz sat up a little straighter to stare down at him, looking thoroughly unimpressed. 

“Yeah you’re right, you’re very different. It’s not as if you’d make sure all your extra food from the bakery goes to starving kids at the end of the day. And you’d never make sure to be kind to your fans when they stop you in the street, no matter how busy you are. And you’d definitely never save a baby you found orphaned in the woods and raise him as your own.” Kravitz said.

“Yeah ok, I get it,” Taako said, burying himself in Kravitz’s chest to hide his burning face. “You’ve made your point.”

“Good, because you are a good person Taako. Truly.” Kravitz said sincerely. Taako smacked him lightly on the arm.

“Stooop!” he whined. “That doesn’t help me anyways. What am I going to do about this?”

“Is there any chance that Angus will give up on this?” Kravitz asked. 

“Honestly, I doubt it. It’s all he’ll talk about anymore. This whole thing really couldn’t be anymore perfect to get his attention.” Taako said. 

“Well let’s say he does go through with it. What happens first?” Kravitz asked. 

“I guess first he meets up with their leader or whatever and they talk more about what his job would be and all that,” Taako said.

“Ok well that seems like something you could be present for. You could have them meet you here in Neverwinter and you’d be there to keep him safe. If it still sounds dangerous after that then at least you can say you gave it a fair shot,” Kravitz suggested. 

“That seems like a decent plan,” Taako agreed. “But what if he ends up doing it and it turns out to be unsafe?”

“Well I guess it wouldn’t be any different than if he was in danger during a case. He can hold his own pretty well and he’s got you looking out for him. And if you can’t get to him, I can be there in an instant.” Taako nodded slowly as he thought all of this over.

“I think I could be ok with that,” Taako said. “Thanks Krav. Both for the second opinion and just...for being there for me and Angus. I know this isn’t exactly a romantic date conversation, but it really helped,”

“I’m happy to be there for both of you. In any way I can be,” Kravitz said seriously. Taako stared up at him for a moment before pulling him down for a kiss, slow and sweet. 

“I love you,” Taako whispered against his lips. It wasn’t the first time he’d said it, but the words were still new to Kravitz. 

“I love you too,” he said reverently. Taako smiled softly at him before stealing another kiss, shorter than the first but just as gentle. 

“Are you staying here tonight Bones?” Taako asked. Kravitz shook his head.

“I wish I could. I’ve got some work that I should really be catching up on though.” Kravitz said.

“Are you sure I couldn’t persuade you to stay?” Taako asked, only half kidding. Kravitz smiled ruefully at him.

“I’m sorry, but I really should be going back.”

“Alright,” Taako sighed as he rose to his feet. “I’m gonna head to bed then. Goodnight Krav.” Kravitz stood up as well to pull Taako into one last hug and press a kiss to his forehead. 

“Goodnight Taako,” he said. Taako smiled at him before turning and heading towards his room. Before Kravitz could decide to leave, he caught sight of a pair of eyes watching him from the hallway.

“Aren’t you supposed to be asleep?” he asked amusedly. Angus only shrugged, stepping fully into the room.

“I figured you guys would talk about the letter I got,” Angus explained. 

“So you were eavesdropping then?” Kravitz asked.

“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “Are you gonna tell my dad?” Kravitz huffed a laugh at that. 

“No, I’m not,” he told him. Angus looked satisfied with that. He seemed to think something over for a moment before stepping forward and giving Kravitz a hug. 

“Thank you for convincing him,” Angus said. Kravitz was shocked but returned the hug after a moment.

“Of course,” Kravitz responded. “But Angus? Please be careful. I know that you can take care of yourself, but still,” Kravitz said. Angus rolled his eyes but he was smiling. 

“I know, and I will be. You and dad worry too much,” he said.

“We worry just the right amount for someone who’s life is as dangerous as yours,” Kravitz told him. “Now go to bed. I may still be getting used to time but I know you have school tomorrow.”

“Fine,” Angus said with fake irritation. “Goodnight Mr. Kravitz.”

“Goodnight Angus.”

Once Angus had gone back to bed, Kravitz materialized his scythe and cut a portal to the astral plane. He hated to leave but he really did have work to do. It was so strange now to have a life outside of work. He never used to have anything to look forward to or to pull him away from his job. Ever since Taako and Angus had entered his life, though, it had been changed for the better. For the first time since he’d become a reaper, if not longer, his life was filled with happiness and love. It was more than he’d ever expected to find for himself. Being a reaper was satisfying and he’d never been unhappy doing it, but that was vastly different from the joy he had now. He loved both Taako and Angus so much and was so grateful to have them in his life.

 

Lucretia was glad that Angus and his dad had agreed to meet with her. She would have understood if they hadn’t, she really hadn’t even expected them to agree, but it certainly made her life easier. Otherwise, she had no idea how to stop a ten year old kid from exposing all of their secrets. 

Angus’ dad had been the one to organize the meeting and he’d insisted that they meet in Neverwinter. This was fine with her. She hadn’t gotten to come down planetside in a long time anyways. She was starting to get the sense that his dad was going to be a problem though. He was only protecting his son like any good dad should, but that wasn’t helpful to her when she was trying to recruit him for a dangerous and top secret organization. Convincing him wasn’t going to be easy. 

As she walked up to the front door of their apartment, she couldn’t help but feel like the address was familiar. She’d been trying to place the reason why all day but couldn’t figure it out. Not until she knocked on the door anyways.

She didn’t know who she had been expecting to open the door but it certainly wasn’t Taako. Sure, she’d known that he was living in Neverwinter but she hadn’t known much beyond that. If she was being honest she’d been afraid to know if he was ok or not. She’d messed up so much already. 

 

Oh gods, was Taako a dad? How had that even happened? How could she have not known? Before she could get to caught up in she thoughts Taako cleared his throat impatiently.

“You’re the Director then?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her from where he was leaning against the door frame. 

“Oh, yes that’s me,” she said as she tried to regain her focus. “And you would be?” 

“Taako,” he told her as if she hadn’t already known. Suddenly, she wasn’t sure if she could do this. Taako had apparently already grown bored with introductions though, because he turned and walked back inside, not bothering to check if she followed or not. It looks like he hadn’t gotten any more polite since she last saw him. She was kind of afraid to see the ways he’d changed though. Gathering her courage, she followed him inside.

Once they reached the living room Taako draped himself across the couch while a young boy ran up to greet her.

“Hello ma’am! My name is Angus. It’s nice to meet you,” he said cheerfully. Lucretia smiled down at him. She never would have guessed that this was Taako’s son from the way he behaved.

“It’s nice to meet you too Angus. You may call me Madame Director,” she said. Taako snorted at that.

“Do you actually make people call you that? It’s kind of dramatic isn’t it?” he asked. Lucretia smirked a little.

“I find that when you run a secret organization that’s trying to save the world you can be as dramatic as you like,” she said. Taako still seemed a little skeptical but accepted the answer nonetheless. After introductions were out of the way, Lucretia took a seat in an armchair, it being the only chair left with Taako taking up the whole couch. Angus shoved his dad’s feet off of one of the couch cushions and sat down as well. The moment he was sitting Taako dropped his feet in his lap, grinning playfully at the kid from the other side of the couch. Lucretia marveled at how easily Taako interacted with Angus for a moment before forcing herself to continue.

“Now before I can explain things fully, I need the both of you to drink from these,” she told them as she pulled out two vials of the voidfish’s ichor and set them on the coffee table. “These will inoculate you so that you can understand the information that is being blocked.”

Angus began to reach for a vial but Taako moved it out of his reach with a quick mage hand. Angus turned to pout at him but Taako ignored him. 

“You can’t just show up here acting all cryptic and expect us to drink whatever you hand us,” Taako said.

“Would it make you feel better if I drank from them first?” she asked. Taako nodded in response so she took the stoppers out of both vials and took a quick sip from each, trying to to wince. They tasted awful but she couldn’t give them any reason not to drink them.

Even after she drank from both of them, Taako still wouldn’t let Angus drink any until he did first. It was strange to see him being so protective of someone who wasn’t an IPRE member. It was a nice change though. It was definitely one for the better.

The three of them sat there quietly for a moment while Taako and Angus processed all of the memories that they had regained. Angus was the first to break the silence.

“Awhile ago I was on the Rockport Limited and I met three people who tried to tell me they worked for the Bureau of Balance. At the time all I could hear was static. Is that what you’re recruiting me for?” he asked.

“Yes,” Lucretia confirmed. “The three of them work as reclaimers for us. The Bureau of Balance is dedicated to finding and destroying dangerous magical objects like the one that was on the train that day.”

“What was the object that they found?”

“It was known as The Oculus, one of the seven Grand Relics. It gave its user the ability to make any illusion real. As you may have remembered, the Grand Relics were the cause of a war not too long ago. Erasing their memory from the world stopped the war and allows us to deal with the Relics discreetly. The reclaimers bring them back to the Bureau so that we can destroy them and keep anyone else from abusing their power.”

“And that’s what you want me to do? Help retrieve these Relics?” Angus asked. 

“In a sense, yes. You wouldn’t be handling the Relics like the reclaimers do. Your job would be to help us locate these objects and to find as much information about them as possible before we send our reclaimers in to collect them,” Lucretia told him. 

As Lucretia told Angus more about the Bureau and what his duties as a seeker would be, Taako watched her suspiciously the entire time. It was hard not to be distracted by that. She knew that it was her own fault he no longer trusted her, but it still hurt. Once she was done explaining Taako finally spoke up.

“You said that your base is on the moon, which is crazy by the way, and that most of your members live there. Will that be expected of him?” he asked.

“No, it won’t. He’s free to continue to live here. He’ll likely be given his own dorm on the base anyways, if only just as a place to work and to keep his belongings.” Lucretia said. 

“And he definitely won’t be doing any field work right? Like, he’ll just be doing research?”

“That’s correct,” she confirmed.

“Ok, I’ve got one more question for you and I need you to be completely honest. How dangerous would this job be for him?” Taako asked. 

“Working as a seeker would be a relatively low risk job. I won’t say that it’s completely risk free because the work that the Bureau does is inherently dangerous. But even so, as a seeker it would take some truly exceptional circumstances to put Angus in harm’s way,” she said.

Taako nodded slowly. “Alright, we’re gonna have to talk about this more before we give you an answer,” he said.

“I expected as much,” she said as she stood to leave. “No matter what you decide, I appreciate you taking the time to consider my offer. It was nice meeting you both.”

“It was nice to meet you too ma’am,” said Angus. Taako gave a noncommittal sound rather than agreeing. Lucretia smiled all the same as she said her goodbyes and let herself out. Once the door closed behind her Taako turned to Angus.

“You still wanna do this boychik?” he asked.

“Yeah I do. Somehow, this job actually sounds less dangerous than the detective work I’ve been doing. I’d be doing more significant work too.” Angus said. 

“What about school?” Taako asked. “I don’t know how you’re gonna have time to do all your homework and save the world.”

“We’ve talked about me switching to a tutor before already. School is too easy for me anyways. I think if I did that then I could manage my time better.” Taako considered him for a moment before finally one of his biggest concerns.

“Am I ever gonna see you if you do this? Or are you just gonna be away doing research all the time?” he asked. Angus stared at him in shock before answering.

“Of course you’ll still see me,” he said. “I’d still live here and I could bring my work down here from the base. I wouldn’t want to do this job if it meant never seeing you.” Taako looked relieved at that.

“Well if that’s the case then I guess we can figure out how to make this work,” Taako said.

“Really?” Angus gasped.

“Yeah, really. I still think this is all super shady, but I’ll at least give it a chance I guess.” Not a second after he finished that sentence Angus was in his lap hugging him tightly.

“Thanks Dad,” Angus said from where he was tucked under his chin. Taako pulled him closer and rubbed circles into the boys back. 

“If this all goes south I get to tell you I told you so,” Taako responded. Angus laughed at that and shifted himself so that he was between Taako’s side and the back of the couch, making it clear that he had no intention of going anywhere. Once Angus was comfortably settled against his side they spent a while planning what needed to happen to make Angus’ new job work. Part of him still wanted to stop Angus from doing this, but he trusted his son and if this is what he wanted to do, then he wouldn’t stop him.


	14. Candlenights Party

Lup couldn’t even remember the last time she’d actually gotten to celebrate Candlenights. Usually she’s alone for the holiday so she never really did anything. But now that she actually had people to invite over she was going all out. Everyone she knew from the Bureau was over. She’d even managed to invite Angus behind Magnus and Merle’s backs.

The party was officially in full swing. They had the Candlenights bush decorated and on display and their dorm was packed with all the friends they’d made in the past few months. Even Magnus’ wife Julia got to come. Magnus had spent the whole party excitedly introducing her to everyone they came across. It was obvious that he was overjoyed that she was here. Lup couldn’t blame him though. She seemed like a cool lady. 

The gift exchange was off to a kind of shaky start. Magnus and Merle didn’t seem to have taken getting presents for everyone very seriously. She kind of figured that they wouldn’t. They really weren’t even that close with their coworkers yet anyways. Lup actually enjoyed giving gifts though so she’d tried to get everyone something little at least. So far she’d given Johann a little kalimba, Killian a new diary with a lock on it (after catching Magnus and Merle with her old one), and Avi some cider from some popular family run business in Hogsbottom. As Avi walked away Angus finally made his way over to them, clutching three carefully wrapped presents in his arms.

“Hey there little man, glad you could make it.” Lup greeted him. 

“I’m glad I could too. Thank you very much for inviting me Miss Lup,” Angus said, smiling wide.

“Ango! Meet my wife Julia,” Magnus said, gesturing proudly to Julia.

“It’s nice to meet you ma’am,” Angus said politely. 

“It’s nice to meet you too sweetheart,” she said. “Are you having a good Candlenights?”

Angus nodded. “Yeah I am! I’ve never been to a Candlenights party before.”

“Shouldn’t you be at home with your dad celebrating Candlenights?” Merle asked.

“My dad and I are gonna celebrate in a few days. His boyfriend got called away for work suddenly so we’re gonna wait for him to get back,” Angus explained.

“You ok with your dad putting the holidays on hold for his boyfriend Ango?” asked Lup. She didn’t really like the implications of his dad putting his boyfriend first.

“Yeah I am,” said Angus. “He hasn’t gotten to celebrate in a really long time so we were gonna make it special for him this year. Besides, I want him to be there.”

“Well alright then,” said Lup. “Now, do you guys wanna exchange gifts or what?”

Angus handed them each their gifts and they opened them to reveal different installments from a series called Caleb Cleveland: Kid Cop. He explained to them that those books had been a big factor in how he became a detective. After some minor bullying and some regifting, Angus ended up with a duck shaped whetstone from Merle and Magnus’ word that he wouldn’t play keepaway with his stuff for the next season. Finally, Lup handed the present she’d gotten him. 

Angus unwrapped her gift with great reverence, as if he hadn’t expected to get a gift at all. Once he had all the paper peeled away he pulled out the notebook from inside. He carefully ran his hands over the cover as he examined it.

“Here, let me show you how it works,” Lup said as she plucked it from his hands. She opened the book to the first page where she’d already written ‘Happy Candlenights’ across the top. She kneeled down next to him so he could watch before running her finger along the spine of the book. As she did the letters began to fade and slowly vanished from the page. She repeated the action and the message reappeared.

“Woah,” Angus breathed as he took the book back from her.

“I figured you could use that if another three idiots come along and try to go through your detective stuff again,” Lup said. Angus laughed at that before pulling her into a hug.

“Thank you Miss Lup. It’s perfect,” he said. Lup smiled down at him and ruffled his hair a little.

“Don’t mention it kid,” she said. 

Angus wandered off to go chat with Killian while they talked to the Director and received their bonus. After that they finished their gift exchange. Which really meant that Lup kept giving out real presents while Magnus and Merle made them up on the spot. She gave Magnus and Julia their matching bear claw necklaces and Merle a new planter box for the herbs in their kitchen. She even got some journals for Lucretia and an enchanted sphere which projects the night sky for Davenport. Davenport’s present had been the hardest to find since she didn’t know him well, but she had caught him stargazing quite a few times. He seemed to appreciate it so she counted it as a win. 

At the end of the exchange there was only one gift left and it said it was for them. She couldn’t understand the patches inside, and had no idea why it would say ‘for your eyes only.’ She was about to ask Lucretia about it before they were interrupted by her necklace. Apparently that punk Lucas had gotten into some trouble and they had to go deal with it. So much for a peaceful Candlenights. 

As they got ready to go save Lucas with the regulators, she saw Angus run off with a stone of farspeech in his hand. Poor kid was getting dragged into this mess for the holidays too. Hopefully they could wrap this up soon so they could all get back to celebrating. 

 

“Hey Dad?” Angus said nervously into his stone of farspeech.

“What’s up bubbeleh?” Taako responded.

“Um, something came up at the Bureau and I have to stay here and help out with a mission. I don’t know when I’ll be back.” Angus said. He fidgeted the chain of his stone during the silence that followed.

“Are we talking days or weeks or…?” Taako asked eventually.

“I think a couple days max?” Angus guessed. 

Taako sighed deeply before responding. “Alright then. I guess I’ll just do all the Candlenights prep by myself. Alone. Without any help.”

Angus winced. “I’m really sorry,” he mumbled.

“It’s fine kid. Seriously. I’m just being dramatic don’t mind me. Promise me you’ll be safe though ok? And that we’ll actually celebrate eventually,” 

“I promise,” Angus said, nodding even though no one could see him. 

“Good,” Taako said. “Now go save the world or whatever.”

“I will,” Angus laughed. “I love you Dad.”

“I love you too angel.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this one is so short after I haven't posted in forever but I wanted to get something published. I got super busy last week but I'll try to get back to more frequent updates again. 
> 
> Also: I don't know what happened with the notes on the last chapter but the note that I posted on the first chapter got transferred to that one somehow?? Idk what happened. The point is though, that you all were so encouraging and kind that I took the note down altogether. I was self-conscious and new at this when I posted that and I've made a lot of progress since then. Thank you all for helping me to realize that. I couldn't be more grateful to have your support <3


	15. Crystal Kingdom Part 1

If Lucas’ lab wasn’t about to ice-nine the whole planet it’d actually be kind of pretty. What was once a conservatory was now completely crystallized. Lup stepped carefully into the forest of pink tourmaline, looking for any signs of a threat. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone else here, but she’d learned to be wary in the past few months. It was good that she had too, because suddenly some creepy synthetic voice was singing nonsense at them.

No sooner had that stopped before a ball of white light came out from a rift in front of them, dropping itself into the crystallized pond they were standing on. The whole lab began to shake violently and shards of crystal flew in the direction of the light, one clipping Merle as it flew by. They came together in the air to form a giant golem. The light rises up and spreads throughout it’s form, making it seem as though it’s filled with white fire. Lup draws her wand and prepares for combat. Merle and Magnus follow her lead.

At first it seems like the golem will ignore them altogether. It barely spares them a glance before it starts to walk further into the conservatory, seemingly looking for something as it goes. Just when they think they’re off the hook though, the golem freezes and turns back to them. It has no facial expression to speak of but Lup gets the impression that they’re being studied. Unfortunately, it must have found whatever it was looking for because it starts walking back over to them. 

“Uh, hey there!” Lup calls to it as it towers over them. That had been a mistake because it suddenly flies at her, getting inches from her face. 

“Woah a little personal space would be great there bud. What are you doing here anyways?” The golem just continues to stare at her without a response. Lup huffs in frustration. 

“Are you gonna answer me or not geodude?” she demands. Finally the golem backs off, turning to stare at Magnus next. Magnus holds its gaze until it turns to Merle, who immediately begins to cry. Lup is busy sharing an exasperated look with Magnus when she catches Merle reaching for the Extreme Teen Bible. Magnus must see the alarm on her face because he turns to see what Merle’s doing, nudging him and shaking his head when he realizes he’s about to cast. Merle shoots them a dirty look but thankfully doesn’t cast whatever spell he was about to.

After a moment the golem straightens again, still looking them over critically before raising a sharp claw to point at Lup.

“You,” it says in a gravelly voice. Magnus didn’t even hesitate before charging at the golem with Railsplitter drawn. 

Magnus barely damages the thing and Lup takes a pretty big hit from it. She takes a moment to recover while Merle casts Guardian of Faith before blasting it with Shatter in retaliation. She managed to destroy destroy one of its arms, which would have been cool if it hadn’t immediately reformed. 

“Hey guys,” she shouts. “I’m not sure we’re gonna win this one. Maybe we should get out of here.”

“Uh, yeah, looks like we are ski-daddling,” Magnus replied. 

The three of them make a break for the door, glancing behind them as they go. The golem tries to follow them but is quickly intercepted by Della Reese as it does. It screams as its chest is pierced by her heavenly sword. Its crystalline form collapses and they watch as the ball of white light vanishes into another rift.

 

Kravitz groaned in frustration as he retreated back into the astral plane. Those three should have been easy targets and they’d escaped him in minutes. He wasn’t sure how worried about that he should be. Technically he didn’t know yet if they had bounties on their heads but he could tell that the girl had been a lich. It was faint but she definitely had necromantic energy coming off of her. 

Speaking of the girl, she had looked scarily similar to Taako. He was really hoping that was a coincidence. Reaping one of his boyfriend’s family members would not be great for their relationship. 

Actually, he should probably make sure that she wasn’t before he did anything else. Kravitz pulled his Stone of Farspeech out from where it hung under his shirt and dialed Taako’s frequency. 

“What’s up bone daddy?” Taako answered.

“I’m begging you to stop calling me that,” Kravitz groaned. He tried not to get too distracted by his boyfriend’s infectious laughter before pressing on. 

“I was actually calling to ask you something,” he said.

“And what’s that?” Taako asked.

“Other than Angus, do you have any family members I should know about?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” Taako muttered. “No, I don’t. Angus is my only family member. Why?”

“I’ve got a potential bounty here who looks weirdly similar to you. I thought you might be related,” he explained. 

“Oh, well you should definitely reap them then. For infringing on my brand if nothing else.” Taako said. 

“I’ll see what I can do,” Kravitz chuckled. 

“Hey Krav? Any idea when you’ll be back? I know you busy and all but I gotta say, I’m not really digging the whole ‘alone during Candlenights’ thing,” Taako said. 

Kravitz winced. “Is Angus gone too?”

“Yep. Some emergency mission came up I guess,” he said, trying to sound casual but missing the mark. 

Kravitz felt really guilty now. This was not at all how he’d wanted this Candlenights to go. He’d been really excited to spend it with Taako and Angus this year, and he knew that Taako had been too. He really hoped he could make it up to him. He knew how much Taako hated being alone. 

“I’m so sorry, love.” Kravitz said. “I’ll do my best to be back by tomorrow.”

“Ok. Then hopefully I’ll see you then,” Taako said with false enthusiasm. Kravitz had never so badly wanted to not be on a mission. 

“Hopefully,” he agreed. “I’ve got to get back to work but I promise I’ll be back as soon as I can. I love you Taako.”

“Love you too Krav. You better make good on that promise.”

Kravitz sighed as the line went dead, wanting nothing more than to abandon this mission altogether. But since he couldn’t do that, his only option was to get through it as soon as possible. 

He summoned his book of bounties and flipped through the pages, searching for the three he’d run into earlier. The first one he’d managed to find was the woman. Her name was Lup apparently and she was definitely a lich. She had also died a total of 12 times without visiting the astral plane. But...no that can’t be right. It said that she was pardoned. He’d been doing this job for a long time, and a lich being pardoned was unheard of. That had to be a mistake. 

Confused now, he looked up the other two instead. Magnus Burnsides had died 19 times without visiting the astral plane. He had also been pardoned. A little more frantically now, he searched for the last one.

Merle Highchurch. He couldn’t fucking believe this. Merle Highchurch had died 57 whole times and never once visited the astral plane. And yet somehow he’d still been pardoned. How could this be? How could these three collectively have some of the worst offenses he’d ever seen and yet not one of them had a bounty on their head? That couldn’t be right. 

What was he even supposed to do about this? He could ask his queen but it would take time to gain an audience with her. The bounty he was actually supposed to be hunting sort of had a time limit on it too. If he didn’t work quickly he could have an uprising on his hands. 

Kravitz sighed to himself and slammed the book shut, banishing it from his hands. The Raven Queen trusted his judgement. He’d just have to make his own decision on this one. He supposed that he would just have to focus on bringing in the Millers. If he ran into those other three again then maybe he’d try to bring them in as well but they couldn’t be his priority right now. 

Once his decision had been made Kravitz steeled himself and opened another rift back into the lab. He was going to do his job and those three idiots with the most appalling records he’d ever seen were not going to stop him. 

 

After fleeing the conservatory the three reclaimers found themselves somewhere called the Magical World of Elevators. Immediately after they entered the room Magnus began pulling out his Stone of Farspeech to call Angus. 

“H— Hello? Did, what did you guys need?” Angus answered. 

“Hey Ango, um what, what do you know about the Philosopher’s Stone? We just ran into like a crystal golem thing that like sang to us. And it was like—” 

“Yeah, that shouldn’t, that definitely shouldn’t happen. Because I mean, that, that’s just beyond its capabilities!” Angus said. 

“Do you know anything about like a crystalline demon? It was like a glowing ball of light, it sang, it was really creepy, it sounded like a vocoder,” Magnus asked. 

“How did it… How did it find you? Tell me everything.”

Magnus quickly explained how the white light had appeared and formed a crystallized golem around itself. Angus thought about it for a moments before responding. 

“Um, uh. Yeah, I mean, it sounds like it was somehow inspirited by uh, by a ghost or something like that, but ghosts can’t really do that. Actually… that sounds kind of familiar. I can’t think of what it would be but I feel like I should know it.” Angus trailed off for a moment, apparently lost in thought.

“Sorry, I can’t think of it. But I’ll start cracking the books and see what I can find out for you,” he said.

“Alright, do that. Let us know if you come up with anything,” Magnus said. 

“Thanks, Ango!” Lup called.

“Yeah, no problem! I— I love you.”

“Love you too,” Magnus responded before hanging up. 

 

Lup was getting really tired of this lab. They’d fought all kinds of weird stuff at this point. They had gained a new robot teammate and met up with the reclaimers. That creepy white light thing had even came back and started targeting her and Merle. Angus kept insisting he knew what that thing was but Merle had already lost an arm to it. Even if he did figure it out, she wasn’t sure how much help it would be. 

After finally getting a chance to talk to Lucas and another weird run in with the red robe, they were currently arguing about what to do next. The regulators wanted to take Lucas straight to prison, but Magnus was trying to convince them to at least wait until they had the Philosopher’s Stone. It turned out that the argument was pointless because Lucas ended up paralyzing them and escaping. Just when Lup thought this couldn’t go any worse the crystal golem reformed in front of them, now more skeletal and menacing than before. 

“Well, this is hardly fair,” it said in a thick cockney accent as it towered over them. 

“Oh,” Angus breathed from the Stone of Farspeech. “Oh no. Mr. Kravitz? Is that you?”

The golem froze for a moment before crouching down closer to their level. It seemed to look them over for a moment before speaking.

“Angus?” it asked. 

Lup stared up at it as best she could before exchanging confused glances with Magnus and Merle. What on earth was going on here?

“Yeah it’s me!” Angus said. “I’m helping the reclaimers with one of their missions right now. Um, why are you hunting my friends sir?

The golem, whose name was Kravitz apparently, rubbed it’s hand down where it’s face would be before responding. 

“Because your friends have some of the worst records criminal records I’ve ever seen. They’ve died 12, 19, and 57 times respectively without once visiting the astral plane. And to make matters worse the girl is a shhrxksns,” Kravitz said. 

“Woah that’s weird. All I heard was static there but that--that shouldn’t be happening. And the rest of it just doesn’t make any sense. There’s no way they all died that many times. Right?” Angus asked, finally addressing the rest of them. 

“Yeah, I think I would remember dying that many times,” Magnus confirmed. 

“Alright...alright. Listen. Technically you guys don’t have bounties on your heads--”

“--then why are you hunting us?” Merle asked.

“--and even though that should be impossible after what you’ve done, I suppose I can let you go. But that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. I’ll be a little lenient because you’re Angus’ friends, but I can’t just overlook this,” Kravitz said. 

“That’s good enough for us,” Lup said, finally sitting up a little as she regained some movement. 

“Cool. In that case, I’m going to go back to hunting my original bounty.” 

And with that, the white light flew from the chest of the golem as it began to lose its structure. Chunks of crystal crashed down in front of them as it disappeared into a rift. And then Kravitz was gone. 

“Hey Angus? You’ve got some really weird friends,” Magnus said after a moment. 

“Believe me sir, I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot of really good foreshadowing in Crystal Kingdom but my personal favorite which I've just rediscovered is Griffin explicitly telling them not to bite the crystal golem during their first encounter with it


	16. Crystal Kingdom Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up this chapter's a long boy. I just didn't want three straight chapters of crystal kingdom. I love this arc very much but I'm very glad to be done with it

When they finally catch up to Lucas they find him trying to free some kind of robot from the crystalline stalactite it’s trapped in. Lup takes a moment to survey the room while Magnus rushes in. The robot encased in amethyst is holding what can only be the Philosopher’s Stone. That’s gonna be a problem later. Across the room is a giant sapphire mirror, through which she can see thousands of white lights sailing through rainbow-hued waters. It would have been beautiful if not for the massive stone building which loomed over them. 

Her attention is drawn away from the mirror by the sound of Magnus shouting. He’d already hauled Lucas up by the front of his shirt and, yeah, Lup wanted in on that too. She lazily made her way over, joining them in time to catch the tail end of what Magnus was saying. 

“I am done fucking around. You left us up there in a room paralyzed, attacked by some kind of crystal golem— fucking TALK, NOW,” he said. 

Lup caught Merle’s eye and gave him a subtle wink before moving to stand behind Magnus, arms crossed and face neutral. 

“And you better give us an honest answer this time, or you’ll wish we let the regulators take you out when they had the chance. That, I can promise you,” Lup said. Fire burst to life in her palms to emphasize her point. She let it swirl casually in the air as she stared him down. His eyes stayed locked on the movement of the flame and he swallowed visibly. 

“Ohh it’s like good cop bad cop,” Merle said from behind them. 

“More like bad cop worse cop,” Lup corrected. 

“Which one of us is the worse cop?” Magnus asked. 

“I think we all know the answer to that,” Lup said. “Now are you going to talk or not?” 

The flame moved to dance around Lucas instead and he struggled in vain against Magnus’ grip. 

“Okay, stop, okay! I'll explain everything. I--When I contacted the Director earlier today I told her that I found the Philosopher's Stone a couple weeks ago. That was a lie. I actually found it— I've had it for four months now,” Lucas admitted. 

He explains that his mother’s mind had been destroyed by the cosmoscope and that he’d been trying to use her life’s work to bring her back. He’d built her a robotic body, the one encased in amethyst, and managed to drag her soul out of the astral plane. But when she had been brought back something was wrong. The caring and loving woman she had been in life was lost. Instead she was only hostile, lashing out at her own son. Lucas had been forced to retreat and she had used the Philosopher’s Stone to crystalize the lab. 

“I defended you up there,” Magnus said. “And you've hidden all of this from us. We could have helped. You could've worked with the Director to figure all of this out. You c-- like… as a scientist you have let down the concept of experimentation and science. You're a coward and I hate you.”

Tears began to well up in Lucas’ eyes and he starts sniffling. If he hadn’t messed up so badly she might actually feel sorry for him. 

“I'm sorry I just, I thought I could still save her, I thought I could still defuse the situation myself, I thought— I’m worried that you guys would do some- would hurt her, you'd make me— you'd put her back in the astral plane and that I'd lose her again!” Lucas said. 

“She's gone, Lucas. Would your mother have struck you?” Magnus asked. 

“No…”

“Your mother is gone. Help us fix this.”

“...Okay,” Lucas finally said. 

“I’ve got to be honest,” a voice interrupted. “I was really hoping I wouldn’t see you all again.”

Lup quickly looked around for the source of the voice only to find a strikingly handsome man staring at her from the mirror. 

“Kravitz?” she guessed. 

“Yeah its me, hi,” he said blandly. “Now if you could be so kind as to hand over Lucas so that we can all call it a day.”

“Why do you want him?” she asked warily. 

“Let me break this down for you. That nerd is a necromancer. And necromancy is real bad stuff. We’re not fans of that over here, where I’m from.”

“And where is that?” Magnus asked. 

“You really are– you really don't—?” Kravitz sputtered. 

“No, that was a... rhetorical question. So you’re death or hades or something…” asked Magnus. 

“Some people call me Death, sure, some people call me— oh, in some societies I’m called the Grim Reaper. I like that one. I prefer to go by Kravitz. And I am a bounty hunter for the Raven Queen. I hunt down wayward souls that escape from the astral plane. I dole out punishment for anybody who breaks the natural laws of life and death, and I've gotta tell you, this laboratory is a veritable piñata of punishment.”

“So that’s why you were so mad that we supposedly died a bunch of times. And you’re after Lucas because he broke his mom out of the astral plane.” Lup said. 

“Precisely,” Kravitz confirmed. With a wave of his hand, Kravitz summoned a book which appeared to be made out of light and began to read from it. 

“Lucas Miller, you've been found guilty of aiding in the escape of your deceased mother Maureen from the eternal stockade, where she was in prison for conspiring to escape back to the mortal world. Your mother was in prison, Lucas, and you can't break people out of prison.”

“Alright now hold on,” said Lup. “Sure nerdlord over here messed up--”

“--hey!” Lucas protested.

“--but he was just trying to get his mom back. Is that really worth killing him over?”

“Yes, it is. I literally just explained that my whole job is to kill people who do exactly that. Were you even listening to me?” Kravitz asked angrily. 

As Kravitz speaks his form begins to change. His face goes gaunt until it’s completely skeletal, eyes glowing red. His robes grow longer and frayed. A scythe materializes in his outstretched hands. 

“Look, I’m already ignoring your crimes for Angus’ sake, but I cannot ignore Lucas’. I have direct orders to bring him in and I won’t disobey the Raven Queen. But there’s no reason for you to be involved in this. Just hand him over peacefully and we won’t have a problem,” Kravitz said.

“I say we just do that,” said Merle. 

“I dunno. I mean he’s a dick but I still don’t feel great about handing him over to the grim reaper,” Magnus said. 

The scene in the mirror began to change behind Kravitz. Shimmering grey lights begin to pour out of the prison, coming together to form a giant spectral hand. As the hand inched closer to him, Lup subtly pulled out her stone of farspeech. 

“Hey Ango? How much do you care about his Kravitz guy?” she whispered.

“Um, a lot? Why?” Angus asked.

“No reason,” she said before hanging up. 

The hand was inches from Kravitz now. She sighed and resigned herself to the fact that she was really going to do this. 

“Hey ghost rider! Watch out!” she shouted, pointing behind him. Kravitz turned to look behind him and immediately began reeling backwards.

“Shit!” he yelled as he retreated into the lab.

Lup pulls him further away from the mirror as the air begins to vibrate. The sensation of it gets stronger and stronger until the amethyst begins to emit the crinkle-tinkles from before. And then another verse of the song rings out across the room, this time sung by a cacophony of different voices. 

_Kept from our children, lovers, friends/ Subject to laws we did not make/ This is where separation ends/ And souls of the lost will come awake/ Enter this crystal kingdom_

“Oh, fuck,” Magnus muttered. 

Suddenly a mass of souls throw themselves against the mirror, burrowing their way through. Silvery goo encases the mirror as more and more of them escape. They come together organically, forming the shape of a gigantic skeleton. When she looks at it more closely she can see the faint impression of faces, all locked in a grimace. Once the skeletal figure is fully formed, a chorus of voices begins to speak in unison. 

“Thank you Maureen, your job is done,” it intoned, turning to address them. 

“Living ones! Permit us entry into this world so that we may tear down the barriers between life and death. Join us in our cause.”

Kravitz was seething by her side. He shot them all a stern look when they considered the option. 

Magnus was the first to speak up. “Yeah, y’know, we’re gonna have to say no, but if you have any pamphlets you wanna leave, or…”

“And we really appreciate you asking first!” Merle chimed in. 

“Yes, that was very nice of you!” Magnus added. 

“Listen, we really appreciate you asking nicely— and you know, asking permission. It’s thoughtful, it’s good etiquette, and you know, so many people these days don’t— they don’t do the etiquette!” Merle rambled on, stalling for Magnus as he crept towards the mirror. 

“So, u-uh- kudos to you! I think it was great! It’s wonderful! It’s beautiful! But, listen, we’re gonna take a no… but thank you so much! Now, on your way out! Look, if you’ll just make sure, because they, the trashcan guys, they left them in the street… if you’ll just move them back... Thanks! God bless! See ya!” 

Merle’s rambling wasn’t enough to distract it. A hand slammed down directly in front of Magnus, cutting him off. 

“You will join us one way or another!” it shouted. 

“Isn’t it your job to stop this thing?” Merle asked Kravitz as souls poured through the mirror, activating the robots scattered throughout the room. Kravitz surveyed the room with wide eyes before answering. 

“Alright, I’ll make you guys a deal. If you all help me stop this thing, I’ll reconsider Lucas’ bounty.” Kravitz said. 

“And how does that benefit us?” Merle muttered. 

“You’ve got a deal,” Lup cut in. 

Carey and Noelle were making quick work of the robots. Between the two of them they’d already taken six of them down. Lup took a moment to wonder if it was too late to join the regulators instead. She loved the boys very much but she would kill to be part of team sweet flips. She deserved to be with her fellow capable women. 

Her thoughts are cut off when Kravitz was plucked from her side by a skeletal hand and thrown across the room. He slammed into the wall with a grunt before slumping to the ground. It then reared back and slapped Magnus away as well, keeping him from getting closer to the mirror. 

As Merle is casting Guardian of Faith, Lup hears a shout from behind her as some of the robots managed to get a hit on Carey. She winced in sympathy but Carey was still going strong. Just when it seemed that the blast had taken her down, she fell into a roll and drove her dagger through the core of another robot.

“Lucas!” she heard Magnus shout. 

“W-what?” said Lucas. 

“If I smash the mirror thing, will it go away?” he asked. 

“It— it sh— I mean, the mirror has to be perfect in order for it to maintain a connection with our—” 

“Got it!” Magnus shouted, already charging towards the mirror again. Once he got to it he drove Railsplitter into the goo surrounding it. The legion of ghosts shrieked in pain as he continued trying to break the mirror. 

Instead of attacking Magnus in retaliation, Legion summons more spirits from the astral plane. Whatever damage Magnus had done to it seemed to be reversed as they joined its form. 

Lup was about to start channeling a spell when she heard someone whistling behind her. The sound was quickly drowned out by Legion’s screams. She couldn’t tell what had happened but it had obviously been effective.

She turned around to catch a glimpse of Kravitz smirking before he stepped through a portal. He reappeared in front of legion, not giving it a chance to recover before cutting into it with his scythe. When Legion reared back to swing at him Lup hit it with a Scorching Ray, giving Kravitz a chance to get away. 

“Merle! Do you have anything that would, like, banish shit?” Magnus called. 

“Yeah, hang on!” Merle responded, holding up his Extreme Teen Bible. 

Kravitz’s eyes went wide. “No, wait!” he shouted. But it was too late. 

Merle shouts something about Turn Undead and suddenly Legion’s form explodes and scatters across the room. Unfortunately for Kravitz, he’s sent flying as well. This was really not this dude’s fight. 

Della Reese deals a pretty huge amount of damage to Legion as it goes flies past her, catching its scattered pieces with her radiant sword. 

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Oh I hate that…” Merle called out as Legion screamed in pain. Kravitz glared at him from his place on the floor when he realized he wasn’t the one Merle was apologizing too. 

While Lup is distracted laughing at Kravitz, she doesn’t notice the robots taking aim at her until it’s too late. The lasers catch her in the back and she’s knocked to her knees from the force of it. 

“Fuck!” she yells as she hits the ground, her back searing with pain. When she looks up she catches Kravitz’s eye. He moves like he wants to run to her side but Merle’s spell keeps him firmly in place. He’s staring right at her but Lup gets the feeling he’s not really seeing her. He has a haunted look on his face and it looks like his mind is a million miles away. If her back didn’t hurt so much she might wonder more about why seeing her get hit freaked him out so bad. 

Instead she takes a moment to take stock. It looked like she hadn’t been the only one the robots had taken down. Lucas was slumped motionless on the ground a few feet away from her. Him being unconscious was dangerous. She didn’t want him getting caught in the crossfire. Especially not after everything they’d gone through to save him. But she knew one person who, if in the right state of mind, would protect him. And even if she didn’t, they need to get to the Philosopher’s Stone anyways. 

Lup turned to the crystallized robot and cast Shatter. A high pitched shriek rings out across the room for a moment and the amethyst begins to crack. Once the crack climbs its way up to the ceiling, the stalactite goes plummeting to the ground, breaking completely and freeing the robot inside. 

The robot begins to move erratically as it stands, as if it’s fighting with itself. It starts to move in one direction before jerking towards another. It gestures with one arm only to have the other pull it back to its side. Finally it curls in on itself and a dozen souls are ejected from its core. 

With newfound control, the robot straightens itself. It turns to stare down Legion, putting itself between it and Lucas and pointing a finger at it. 

“Get the hell away from my son!” Maureen shouts. 

Magnus immediately turned his attention towards her. 

“Maureen, give me the stone,” he said. 

“What? Who are you?” she asked. 

“I'm the guy who's trying to stop all of this. Trust me. Give me the stone.”

“I saw you attack my son, why should I give it to you?” she protested. 

Maureen considered him for another moment before seeming to come to a decision. 

“Are you gonna help us undo this?” she asked.

“Yes,” Magnus said honestly. 

“...Catch.”

Magnus catches the stone easily, eyes glazing over as soon as it’s in his hands. He shakes it off though and, to the horror of everyone in the room, swallows the stone whole.

Lup was immediately doubled over in laughter. 

“Magnus, what the fuck?” she wheezed. 

Magnus gave her a proud smile and a thumbs up before swinging one last time at the sapphire mirror. He finally managed to put a tiny scratch in it and luckily that’s all it took. The view of the astral plane vanished and the mirror began to fall. Magnus realized what was happening too late and didn’t manage to get out of its way. The mirror took him down with it, pinning him to the ground. 

Legion looked ready to attack Magnus, enraged at the disconnection from the astral plane, but seems to think better of it. With Magnus pins it turns to its next biggest threat in the room. 

Kravitz doesn’t manage to dodge this time as Legion rakes a skeletal hand across his side. He takes a second sweeping hit before he can recover. Lup winced in sympathy but he still looked like he was doing ok. Mostly he just seemed mad. 

While Legion is distracted Maureen takes the chance to take care of her son. She pounds her hands on the ground until the wiring inside is exposed and presses them to Lucas’ chest as a makeshift defibrillator. After a few presses Lucas wakes up with a gasp. 

When it becomes clear that her and Merle are the only ones left who can really do anything anymore, Merle steps forward towards legion. 

“I've been through a rough... a rough campaign here. I've had my arm chopped off. I'm not sure how I feel about Pan, ‘cause God lied— we've been all through that. I'm having a moment. I need guidance. I'm gonna take just a second just to do a quick prayer. I'm just gonna pray to Pan,” he said. 

Kravitz shoots her a questioning look but she can only shrug in response. They both stand there awkwardly, waiting for Merle to finish praying. 

“Hope he answers! I’ll do it quick. Pan, if you're there, and if you're not a big fat liar, tell me what to do!”

Golden leaves slowly begin to sprout from Merle’s soulwood arm. The branches that make up his hand push themselves down into a finger-gun pointing directly at Legion. 

“Thank you!” Merle says, a little choked up. 

With the power of Pan on his side, Merle casts Banishment on Legion. As he casts, his thumb is forced down to make it look like the finger-gun has been fired. The golden leaves from his arm blow as if caught in the wind, circling around Legion until, finally, it vanishes. 

“We did it!” Magnus cheered, a little out of breath because of the mirror. 

Right after Magnus says that static comes through their stones of farspeech as the the Director tries to reach them. 

“Come in! Lup! Merle! Magnus! What’s- what’s going on? Carey, tell me, situation report! Have you secured the Philosopher’s-”

“Go for Magnus!”

“Have you secured the Philosopher’s Stone?” she asked. 

“Yes! Very secure!” Magnus confirms cheerfully. 

“Oh that’s putting it mildly,” said Merle. 

“What do you mean?” the Director asked.

“Trust me babe, you don’t wanna know,” Lup told her. 

“Alright well I’m not looking forward to learning what that’s all about but I’m glad to hear that everyone’s safe, and that you’ve accomplished your mission. And Lucas, is he, uh, have you detained him?”

“Uh, well unfortunately, Director...Lucas is dead,” Magnus said. 

“...What?” she asked, voice pained. 

“Yeah, we won’t be able to bring him home.” Magnus winked at Maureen as he said this, giving her a reassuring smile. 

“How did he die? That’s…”

“He was killed by some kind of big scary skeletal thing, that we’ll tell you all about. But apparently he’d been messing not only with the Philosopher’s Stone, uh, but with the forces of nature that bind the universes together--” 

“Geez…” muttered Lucretia. 

“And there’s some people, yeah! It was real messed up!” Magnus agreed. 

“Yeah, it was some heavy stuff. But he is super dead, so we won’t be able to bring– he was blasted to nothingness. He is ash.”

“We do have a cool new robot friend we’d like to bring back though. Would that be ok?” Lup asked. 

“I guess, that would be… fine, um, why don’t you extract who you need to extract and we’ll, we’ll debrief once you return home. Be careful, getting back here, it’s, it’s uh, pretty snowy outside.”

“Sounds good,” Magnus confirmed before hanging up. 

“I’m terribly sorry, but do any of you have any medical training? I’ve stabilized my son, but he’s in terribly poor health.” Maureen asked from where she was crouched by Lucas’ side. She’s doing all that she can to tend to him but her hands were too damaged to be much help.

“I’m quite an accomplished healer!” Merle said as he made his way over.

“Well....” Lup disagreed but he paid her no mind. 

“Yes, if you could please, d-do whatever you can to help my son. Please.” Maureen said. 

“Can I talk to you over here while he tends to Lucas?” Magnus asked Maureen. 

“Um, sure,” she said as she made her way over to him. 

Lup didn’t try to listen in on what they were saying. She assumed Magnus wanted to discuss Maureen and Lucas’ future after all this and she honestly didn’t care much about that anymore. She just wanted to go home. It was funny to watch Magnus try to have a serious conversation while still trapped under a mirror though. 

“He knows we still have to talk about their bounties right?” Kravitz asked as he came and joined Lup.

“Honestly? Probably not,” Lup shrugged. “Hey didn’t you have a cockney accent a minute ago?”

Panic flashes across Kravitz’s face as he searches for an answer. 

“Um--well I have to--I switch between them to--you know what? That’s not important right now,” he stuttered. 

“If you say so,” Lup snickered. “Are you really going to let them go?” 

“All I said was that I would reconsider Lucas’ bounty. I would be willing to drop it, I sincerely doubt that he’ll try necromancy again after all this, but the other two have to come with me,” he said. 

“Two?” Lup asked.

“Maureen and Noelle. Their souls belong to the astral plane. I can’t just leave them here,” Kravitz explained. 

“Without them, we wouldn’t’ve been able to stop Legion, and save your ass.” Magnus protested, having apparently finished talking to Maureen. 

“I get, I totally get that, but Legion was a bunch of escaped ghosts. And that is also what Noelle and Maureen--if I allow them to go, it could, it-it, if we allow a little bit of exception, to the rules, of life and death, then anybody could take advantage of it,” Kravitz said. 

“What if you just collected them later? That way they can have a little more time and you still get to take them back to the astral plane. Maybe like, in twenty years?” Magnus suggested.

“Oh my. That’s probably longer than you three have got left in you, um.” Kravitz suggested.

“What? Wait, _what_?” Merle asked.

“I’m just saying, just based on your sorta habits. Here’s my thing. I love games and gambling, and, uh, you know, risks and wits and wagers. I-I-I – I love all that. So if you could sweeten the pot for me…” Kravitz said. 

“How ‘bout a card game? Just a simple high card draw?

“Yeah, alright,” Kravitz said, switching back to his cockney accent. “Uh...I prefer a nice game of Baccarat over a cigar, but uh… yeah alright let’s play hi- uh, high card draw, let’s do it!”

Kravitz walks over to Magnus and sits down awkwardly across from where he’s still pinned to the floor. Lup watches as they both draw their cards, paying close enough attention to notice Magnus subtly switch his card out for another. 

“Alright, that felt like maybe a little anticlimactic,” Kravitz said as they showed each other their cards. 

“But you know, you did good. You did great. Uh - you know I wanted to let you have this, anyway. You - you three have - You three have done a lot of great work tonight. Let’s just, uh, those rules of nature are there for a reason, so let’s just stop running afoul of them, uh, uh, as if this was all just sort of fun - funsy-fun make believe, whaddaya say?”

“You’ve got it!” Magnus agreed. 

“Well it's been real and it's been fun, and it's been real fun, but I'm gonna head back to the other side. I’ve got a lot to explain to the Raven Queen after all this,” Kravitz said. 

Maureen stops him before he can leave and decides to go back to the astral plane. Whatever she had seen in the cosmoscope had been too much for her and she didn’t want to risk remembering and becoming vulnerable again. After saying goodbye to her son and making them promise to keep him safe, she leaves with Kravitz. 

“Kravitz!” Magnus calls as they’re about to step through the rift.

“Yeah?” he says.

“Tell Steven that Julia and I miss him,” Magnus said. 

“Alright-- there's a lot of Stevens over there but-- never mind, I'm kidding, I know who you're talking about,” Kravitz said.

“Thank you,” Magnus said quietly. 

And with that they disappear into the astral plane and the rift closes.

 

Once they get back to the moonbase they immediately head to the main hall to see the Director. It’s late now so most of the staff were either half asleep or had gone to bed. Angus is waiting for them in the room, nodding off in the corner. He gives them a thumbs up and a big grin when he sees them which Lup returns. 

“How’s it going little man?” she greeted him as he ran up to them.

“It’s going good Miss Lup! I’m glad that you guys made it back safe and that Mr. Kravitz let you go!” Angus said. 

“Yeah speaking of Kravitz, why do you know the grim reaper pumpkin? Because, um, it doesn’t seem great for a little kid to be friends with death,” Lup said 

“Oh, well I first met him while I was on a case. And after that he started dating my dad so I see him a lot,” Angus explained.

“I’m sorry what? Your dad’s dating them grim reaper?” Lup asked incredulously.

Before he could answer she heard the telltale sound of a rift opening and Kravitz stepped into the room. He was no longer skeletal and looked about two seconds away from passing out from exhaustion. He glanced around the room and sighed when he saw them standing there. 

“Oh good, it’s you all again. Just the people I wanted to see,” he muttered irritably. Before they could respond he crossed the room and crouched down in front of Angus. 

“Ready to go?” he asked softly.

Angus nodded sleepily and fell forward into his arms, too tired to object to being carried. Kravitz smiled and ruffled his hair a bit before picking him up and settling him against his hip. 

“Goodnight everyone. Happy Candlenights,” Angus mumbled as Kravitz stepped through another rift. And with that, they were gone. 

 

 

“We’re home,” Kravitz called quietly as he stepped into the living room. When he glanced around the room he could tell that Taako had been hard at work while they were away. The house was completely decked out in Candlenights decorations. The Candlenights bush glowed beautifully from the corner of the room and something in the kitchen smelled amazing. 

Better than all of that though, was the sight of Taako fast asleep on the couch. He was curled up on his side with his face buried in his pillow, golden locks fanned out behind him. A stone of farspeech was clutched in his hand. He must have fallen asleep waiting for them to get home. For a moment Kravitz could only stand there and watch him, stuck by the feeling of how much he loved this man. He was so lucky to love someone as beautiful and caring and brilliant as Taako. And so much luckier to be loved by him in return. 

Finally he managed to pull himself away. He’d have to make sure Taako didn’t spend the whole night on the couch but first he had to get Angus to bed. The boy had fallen asleep almost immediately against his shoulder so he’d have to be careful not to wake him. 

Slowly, he carried Angus to his room and set him down on his bed, making sure to take off his shoes and glasses before tucking him in. Once the blankets were pulled up to his chin, he gently brushed the hair out of his face and silently bid him a goodnight. 

Taako was still fast asleep when he returned so he tried to pick him up as gently as he could. It was no use though. Taako was an incredibly light sleeper and woke up the moment Kravitz tried to move him. 

“Hey there bones,” he greeted, burrowing happily into the reaper’s arms.

“Hello love,” Kravitz murmured. “Let’s get you to bed ok?”

“Mhmm,” Taako mumbled, too tired to form coherent sentences. 

Kravitz took Taako to his room and the moment he put him in bed Taako was dragging him down next to him. He went willingly, both because he was exhausted and eager to have his boyfriend back in his arms. Taako wasted no time wrapping himself around him. His arms were slung around his waist and his face was buried in his shoulder. Kravitz sighed contentedly as Taako settled against him, carding his hand through his hair the way that always made him melt. 

“Love you,” Kravitz whispered, kissing the top of his head. 

“Love you too,” Taako mumbled, sleepily kissing his neck in return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The spell Kravitz cast was Synaptic Static if anyone was wondering
> 
> There are a couple things I realized I should have mentioned ages ago so here they are:  
> 1\. The title of this fic is from Honest by Joseph  
> 2\. I'm mostly-optimistic on tumblr if you wanna come say hi!


	17. Candlenights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long! Here's some Candlenights fluff as an apology

Taako was rudely awaken by a sudden weight crushing his stomach. His eyes shot open as he grunted in protest, finding the culprit looking down at him smiling as innocently as possible. 

“Dad wake up! It’s Candlenights! It’s Candlenights!” Angus cheered, shaking his shoulders to try to wake him further. 

Taako leveled him with a flat look before throwing an arm over his eyes, attempting to go back to sleep. Angus was undeterred, pulling his arm back away from his face and giving him his best puppy dog eyes. 

“Daaad,” Angus whined. 

“It’s too early to be Candlenights. Go back to bed,” Taako muttered. 

“That doesn’t even make any sense,” Angus said. 

Instead of responding Taako just pulled him down into his arms, rolling on his side so that Angus was laying in the space between him and Kravitz. Angus huffed and squirmed out of his grasp but didn’t get up. Instead he turned to greet Kravitz, who was now fully awake and watching them argue amusedly. 

“Good morning Mr. Kravitz. Happy Candlenights!” Angus said. 

“Happy Candlenights to you too, Angus,” Kravitz said, laughing as Taako swung a pillow at his head.

“Will you two shut up?” Taako groaned. 

“Nope. I’m with Angus, I want to start celebrating as early as possible.” Kravitz said. 

Taako tried to glare at him but almost immediately broke into a smile. 

“Fine, I guess we’re getting up now. Even though I spent all of day yesterday slaving away for you two and deserve to sleep in,” Taako said, throwing his covers back with as much drama as he had energy for. 

Angus ignored his dad’s rambling. Satisfied that he’d gotten his way, he scrambled back over Taako and off the side of the bed. 

“I’ll be in the kitchen,” Angus called over his shoulder as he darted out of the room. 

Taako smiled fondly as he watched him go. Unfortunately though, his son’s cuteness was still not enough to wake him up completely. Instead of getting up he dragged himself across the bed towards Kravitz, burying his face in his chest and wrapping an arm around his waist. Just as he was about to fall back asleep he felt Kravitz nudging at his shoulder. 

“Taako we have to get up,” Kravitz said.

Without looking up Taako threw his hand over Kravitz’s mouth, nuzzling further into his chest as he did. Kravitz laughed and kissed his palm before pulling it away from his face. 

“Come on love. Let’s go,” he said. 

“Ugh fine,” Taako said as he finally sat up. He took a moment to blink blearily at the room around him and wake up more fully. By the time he turned back to Kravitz he was already out of bed and looking at him expectantly. 

Taako gave him a pleading look before reaching out and making grabby hands towards him. Kravitz rolled his eyes and scooped him up out of bed but immediately set him down on the ground. 

“This isn’t what I meant,” Taako said, leaning heavily against his side. 

“I know,” was all Kravitz said as he wrapped an arm around his shoulders and guided him out of the room. 

Apparently they had left Angus waiting for too long, because rather than waiting in the kitchen they found him sitting in front of the Candlenights bush, examining the presents closely. 

“Cut it out Agnes. You’re presents are supposed to be a surprise,” Taako said.

Angus was unfazed by the reprimand. Instead he gave Taako a confused look. 

“One of my presents is missing,” he said.

“You sound so spoiled when you say that bubbeleh,” Taako said. 

“You know what I mean,” Angus retorted. “Every year we do seven little presents and one big one. I’m missing one.”

“Guess you didn’t earn it,” Taako said dismissively as he went to the kitchen, dragging Kravitz along with him. Angus still looked suspicious but he dropped the subject and followed after them. 

Taako set to work making breakfast as Angus rambled excitedly to Kravitz about their Candlenights traditions. He smiled fondly to himself as he watched Kravitz listening intently to his son’s chatter, trying to take in as much information as possible. For a moment he was overtaken by the happiness he felt from watching them. Taako had never in his wildest dreams imagined that he would ever take part in such domesticity. He had never wanted to be tied down, or have kids, or even to be in a committed relationship. But he knew now with absolute certainty he wouldn’t give up what he had now for anything. 

 

Once breakfast is over and everyone is dressed Angus insists that he wants to play in the snow. The three of them bundle up in their winter gear before heading out the door towards the park a few blocks away. When they get there it’s still early enough that they’re the only ones. Angus doesn’t hesitate to charge out into the middle of the field. Taako and Kravitz hang back for a moment and watch him begin packing snow together and rolling it into a ball. 

“What’s he doing?” Kravitz asked.

“Have you never made a snowman before Krav?” Taako asked incredulously. 

“I guess not?” he said. 

“C’mon we’re fixing this,” Taako said, grabbing his arm and dragging him towards Angus.

“Ango, you need to teach Kravitz how to make a snowman,” Taako told him. 

“Ok. He can help me make the middle part,” Angus said as he finished rounding out the base he’d been working on. 

Angus walked him through making a snowball and rolling it in the snow until it was big enough. It was cute to watch but Taako was getting bored. When he was sure the two of them were distracted he quickly scooped up some snow, rolling it in his hands. Kravitz was turned away from him and he seized his opportunity. He hurled the snowball at the back of his head, cackling when Kravitz began to splutter and whipped around to face him. Kravitz shot him a glare before turning to catch Angus’ eye. The two of them came to a silent agreement and got to work making snowballs of their own. 

“Hey, no fair you can’t team up!” Taako called to them when he realized what was happening. He ducked out of the way as his traitor of a son threw a snowball at his head. 

“You shouldn’t start things you can’t finish dear,” Kravitz said deviously. Taako swore loudly when Kravitz landed a hit on his arm. He retreated as much as he could while Kravitz and Angus gathered up more snow. They began to chase after him the moment they were armed again. 

Taako let them chase him for a bit, using mage hand to fire back at them while he ran. After being hit one too many times though he needed to change strategies. He waited until they stopped to form more snowballs before bolting towards the tree line. As soon as he reached the perimeter he crouched down and transmuted the snow around him into a wall of ice that was just tall enough for him to hide behind. He ignored the shouts of protest in favor of pelting them with snow. Between him and his mage hand he managed to force them to retreat a little. 

He was too busy being proud of himself to notice Angus draw his wand. Three bolts sailed over his head as Angus’ magic missile hit it’s mark on the tree behind him. He only had seconds to wonder what he’d been trying to do before snow from the branches above came raining down on top of him. He squawked indignantly at the cold and threw himself out from behind the wall to escape it, shaking off as much as possible. 

Taako shot his most deadly glare and Angus and Kravitz, who were laughing loudly at his expense. The two were completely unbothered by this. If anything the started laughing harder. 

“You two are both dead to me,” Taako huffed. 

“Sorry Dad,” Angus said, not looking the least bit guilty. “You started it though.”

“Whatever. I’m going home before I freeze to death out here,” Taako declared. He began to trudge his way through the field, not waiting to see either of them followed.

 

The three of them were freezing and exhausted by the time they got home. Angus collapsed on the couch the moment he was free of his coat. Taako shed his snow soaked layers haphazardly in their entry way. He sighed appreciatively when Kravitz wrapped him up in the warmest blanket he could find. He gave him a quick kiss on the cheek in thanks as he went to the kitchen, desperate for some hot chocolate to warm him up. Kravitz tried to help but was quickly shooed away. Taako told him to go sit in front of the fire instead. He usually pretty chilly but going out in the snow had made him unbearably cold. Taako swore that he wouldn’t go near him until he did something about that. 

When Taako returned to the living room with three mugs in hand Angus was starting to nod off against the arm of the couch and Kravitz was sitting on the floor by the fire. He brought Kravitz his mug and sat down next to Angus, jolting him awake. Angus readjusted himself so that he was leaning into his side, accepting his mug and sipping from it contentedly. 

They sat in silence as they enjoyed their drinks, too worn out from the cold to do anything else. It was only when their mugs were empty that Kravitz decided to speak up. 

“What are we doing next?” he asked. Taako shrugged and looked down at Angus where he was still laying against him.

“What do you wanna do boychik?” he asked him. 

“We could make sugar cookies?” Angus suggested. Taako nodded his approval. 

“Yeah we could do that. I don’t know if I want to let Kravitz near my kitchen though,” he teased.

“I’m sure I can manage to help you two make cookies without ruining your kitchen darling,” Kravitz shot back.

“Alright fine but you better help me keep a close eye on him Ango,” Taako said. Angus agreed that he would as he headed into the kitchen. He started pulling out bowls and ingredients as he waited for the adults to join him. 

Angus knew this recipe by heart. Taako and him made these cookies every Candlenights since he was little. The only person who needed instructions on what to do was Kravitz, who hadn’t attempted to make any kind of food since before he’d died. Taako gave him the easiest tasks that he could and still kept a close eye on him as he did them. He eyed the ingredients he measured out critically before approving them to be added to the bowl. Meanwhile he measured out his own ingredients with his hands just for the sake of showing off. Somehow the look of awe Kravitz was giving him was more rewarding than any audience’s reaction had ever been during Sizzle it Up. 

Before he could get too caught up in that though he caught Angus rolling his eyes at him. Taako did what any mature adult would do and stuck his tongue out at him before passing him the bowl.

“Here Ango, you’re on mixing duty,” he said. Angus accepted the task eagerly. It was his favorite job because it was the easiest way to sneak tastes of the dough. Taako, of course, knew this was why he liked it but turned a blind eye anyways. 

When Angus announced that he was done Taako leaned over his shoulder to assess his work. 

“Nicely done kiddo,” he said cheerfully, patting Angus on the cheek. Angus narrowed his eyes. His dad’s smile was a little too wide to be innocent. He reached up and touched his face and his hand came away covered in flour. He shot an accusing look at Taako who immediately doubled over laughing. 

While Taako was distracted he immediately looked around for a way to retaliate, grabbing the first thing he saw. 

“Hey, Dad?” he said innocently. The moment Taako looked up at him Angus took the spatula out of the cookie dough, swiping it across his face. Taako spluttered for a moment while Angus looked up at him smugly. 

“You’re in trouble now little man,” Taako warned before grabbing Angus around his waist, tickling his sides.

“Stop!” Angus shrieked between giggles. He struggled in vain against Taako but he wouldn’t relent. Just when he was starting to get short of breath he was suddenly let go. He turned around to see what had happened and found his dad with flour coating his hair and shoulders, shock written across his face. Behind him Kravitz was smiling widely and putting the bag of flour back on the counter. Taako turned to him slowly.

“Babe,” he said calmly. “You better fucking run.”

Kravitz wasted no time in bolting out of the kitchen but Taako was right behind him. He made it as far as the living room before Taako tackled him onto the couch, mercilessly shaking out his hair and showering him in flour. 

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Kravitz said, breathless with laughter. 

“You better be thug,” Taako said. Satisfied with his revenge, he leaned down to give Kravitz a quick peck on the lips before getting off of him and returning to the kitchen. 

“Gross,” Angus piped up after seeing them kiss. 

“No one asked you Agnes,” Taako said, ruffling his hair as he passed. 

The cookies are finished without incident after that. The three of them take turns cutting out cookies before Taako puts them in the oven. Angus insists that Kravitz be allowed to do most of the frosting once he sees the ungodly amount of frosting he piles on. Taako argues that he could do better but secretly agrees with Angus. He may be a famous chef but even he enjoys having an unreasonable amount of sugar every once in awhile. 

When the cookies are done Kravitz and Angus enjoy the spoils of their work while Taako starts on dinner. By the time everything is cooked and eaten it’s nearly sundown which meant it was time to start celebrating. They all move to the living room as it gets dark and gather around the menorah in the window. 

“So what do we do?” Kravitz asked. 

“Dad will light the shamash and we’ll recite the blessings. Then he’ll light the rest of the candles and we’ll let them burn for thirty minutes,” Angus explained as Taako added a candle to the menorah. 

“Should I know the blessings?” Kravitz asked. Taako and Angus exchanged glances.

“Maybe just sit this first one out Krav,” Taako said. 

Once everything was ready Taako lit the shamash and him and Angus began to recite the blessings. It soon became clear why they’d hesitated to teach them to Kravitz. They’d started out strong but dissolved into mumbles after a few words. They managed to get through it though and Taako lit the remaining two candles and placed the shamash back in its place. They watch in silence for a moment before Angus tugs on his sleeve.

“Presents?” he asks.

“Presents,” Taako confirms. He wraps an arm around Angus’ shoulders and guides him towards the couch. Once Kravitz and Angus are seated on the couch Taako walks over to the Candlenights bush. 

“What do you think Angus, big presents first this year?” he asked. 

“Yes!” Angus agreed excitedly. Taako grinned at him and began pulling presents out from under the bush and passing them out. Angus didn’t hesitate to start opening his, barely taking the time to note that it was from Kravitz. When he’d managed to tear away the wrapping paper he was left with a case containing a magnifying glass. The handle was beautifully crafted and his name was engraved into the rim. Angus carefully took it from its case, running his hands over the handle and studying the details. 

“It’s enchanted,” Kravitz said. “It will show you the footprints of anyone who has recently passed through the area.” Angus’ eyes lit up.

“Woah, that’s so cool. Thank you so much, sir! It’s perfect!” Angus said, hugging the magnifying glass to his chest.

“You’re very welcome,” Kravitz said.

“Open yours next Bones,” Taako said. Kravitz did as he was told, unwrapping the paper to find a familiar looking case inside. Kravitz’s eyes went wide as he realized what was in his hands.

“You didn’t,” he said in disbelief.

“Why don’t you find out?” Taako said with a smile.

Kravitz popped open the clasps on the case and pulled it open. His suspicions had been correct. Inside the case he found a violin. He hadn’t gotten the chance to play after becoming a reaper, but he had adored it in his life. It was one of the few things he still missed. He turned his attention to Taako, wide-eyed with shock. Taako was looking incredibly pleased with himself. 

“You said you’ve always wanted to play again,” he said with a shrug. 

Kravitz gently set the violin to the side and pushed himself off the couch. Taako watched him with a raised brow but let himself be pulled easily into a kiss.

“Thank you,” Kravitz whispered into the space between them. 

“I expect to be serenaded on the reg now that you’ve got that thing,” Taako teased. Kravitz laughed at that.

“Well I’m definitely rusty but I’ll do my best,” he said. He gave Taako one last quick kiss before returning to his spot on the couch.

“Alright, now it’s my turn,” Taako declared as he dropped onto the armchair with his present. He tore away the paper with the same enthusiasm as his son, opening the thin black box he found inside to reveal a necklace. Twin silver feathers hung from a sapphire pendant on a silver chain. It was certainly more simple than some of his typical jewelry, but it was beautiful all the same. Kravitz watched him admiring it for a moment before speaking up.

“It can be attuned to different objects,” he explained. “When you touch the feathers the other object will heat up and vice versa.”

“Is it attuned to something now?” Taako asked. 

“Angus, do you see the sapphire on the handle of your magnifying glass?” Kravitz asked. 

“Yes,” Angus said.

“Hold your thumb over it,” Kravitz said.

Angus did as he was asked and immediately the right feather of his necklace began to heat up. 

“If you hold your thumb over the right feather the handle of his magnifying glass will heat up as well,” Kravitz said. “I figured it would be an easier way for you two to check in with each other if you needed to.”

“He’s gonna do that all the time now,” Angus groaned.

“Hell yeah I am,” Taako said with a grin. “Thanks Krav, this is way easier than calling each other all the time. Does the left feather do anything?” 

Kravitz reached up and grabbed one of his earrings and Taako felt the left feather heat up. 

“Nice, now I can harass both of you all the time,” Taako said happily, pulling the necklace out of the box and putting it on. After pulling his hair out from under the chain he stood up from the armchair. 

“Alright Ango, ready for your big present from me?” he asked.

“I thought I didn’t earn it,” Angus said jokingly. 

“I decided to give it to you anyways, just because it’s Candlenights,” Taako said easily as he walked out of the room. Moments later he returned holding a small unwrapped box in his hands. He handled the box carefully, bringing it over to rest in Angus’ lap. 

Angus gave him a questioning look before opening the box. Laying inside was a tiny white kitten with black patches of fur. It blinked up at him sleepily and greeted him with a tiny meow. Angus looked delighted. He reached into the box and carefully pet the kittens head. 

“You actually got me a cat?” Angus asked, clearly surprised.

“Yup. Figured you could use something to distract you from working all the time,” Taako said a little accusingly. “And nothing’s more distracting than a baby. Believe me.”

Angus moved the box to the floor and took the kitten out, letting it rest in his lap. It curled up there happily and started kneading at his pant leg. 

“Does it have a name?” Angus asked.

“Nope. His names up to you, so it better be good.” Taako said

Angus thought about it for a moment.

“Caleb,” he finally says.

“No. Absolutely not,” is Taako’s immediate response. Angus nods his head decisively.

“Yep, it’s Caleb,” he says. 

“I refuse to call it that,” Taako said.

“You don’t have to. But that’s his name,” said Angus. 

“Fine, whatever,” Taako said, realizing this wasn’t an argument he was going to win. 

They all spent the rest of the night curled up on the couch together. Taako brings out some latkes for them to snack on while they chat idly. Angus spends most of the night playing with Caleb and watching him explore. After a few hours Taako sees him starting to nod off with Caleb curled up in his lap. He pulls himself from Kravitz’s side and shakes Angus awake, telling him to go to bed. When Angus only buries his face in the arm of the couch Taako hands the cat to Kravitz and pulls his son into his arms. Carrying Angus to his room stopped being easy years ago but he still managed. He tucked him into bed and kissed him goodnight. Kravitz came in after him with Caleb and his bed, getting him settled on the floor before whispering goodnight to Angus. They sneak out of the room as quietly as possible and slowly close the door behind them.

 

Taako is in the living room picking up plates and wrapping paper when something under the Candlenights bush catches his eye. After today the remaining presents should have all been for Angus. He usually gave him something small like coins or chocolates for the remaining days of Hanukkah. But sitting under the bush is an unfamiliar present that’s addressed to him. He knows that Kravitz would have said something if it was from him and the label definitely wasn’t written in his son’s handwriting. 

Confused now, Taako picks up the present and examines it. When he still can’t figure anything out he does the only thing left he can think of and opens it. Inside the packaging he finds some sort of patch. He can’t seem to make out any of the details of it though. There’s a word in the center of it that’s written in a language he can’t understand. Looking at it starts to give him a headache. He still doesn’t even know where the present came from. 

Shrugging his shoulders he decides that there isn’t anything he can do about it so late at night. Instead he sticks the patch in his pocket and throws the packaging away. He could deal with the mysterious present in the morning. Right now all he wanted to do was fall asleep in his boyfriends arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should mention that I'm not Jewish and all of my knowledge of Hanukkah comes from the internet and Rachel Mcelroy. If any information in this chapter related to Hanukkah is incorrect then I'm super sorry


	18. Magic Lessons

It was late in the day when Lup finally remembered that lunch was probably an important thing for her to have. The cafeteria was practically empty by the time she finally got there. Most people had already eaten hours ago. The lack of people made it easy to spot Angus, huddled over a book with his empty plates pushed aside. He must have been there for hours and gotten consumed in whatever he was reading. As soon as Lup had gotten food for herself she headed over to him.

“Whatcha doing little man?” she asked, peering over Angus’ shoulder.

Angus jumped at her sudden appearance, his book falling from his hands and clattering onto the table. 

“Oh, um, hello Miss Lup. I was just reading through my spell book. Dad says it’s important to review every once in a while,” Angus said. 

Lup dropped down on the bench next to him and pulled the book closer to her. A quick glance over the page told her that Angus had been reviewing the spell Fireball. She shot him a bright smile. 

“Are you interested in evocation magic Angus?” she asked. Angus shrugged.

“Kind of. It’s useful for me to know more offensive magic just in case. But my dad is a transmutation wizard so I haven’t learned a lot of it,” he said. 

“Well we can certainly fix that,” Lup declared. “What do you say Ango, wanna learn more about blowing shit up?”

“Well...I don’t think my dad would be very happy if I got a new magic teacher…” he said hesitantly. Lup waved him off. 

“He doesn’t need to know. Besides, don’t you want me to teach you how to hold a fireball until it’s super big and powerful?” Angus looked more interested at that. 

“I guess it couldn’t hurt,” he finally relented. 

“Hell yeah!” Lup cheered. “Alright little man, let’s do this.”

“But we’re still in the cafeteria!” Angus protested. 

“We’ll be careful. Kinda,” Lup said dismissively. She took out her wand and twirled it in her fingers before casting a shield spell around herself. 

“Alright Angus, show me what you’ve got,” she said. Angus had shock written across his face as he stared at her. 

“You want me to cast fireball at you?” he asked incredulously. Lup just shrugged. 

“Sure. We don’t exactly have any targets to use in here. Plus, you’re like a baby. I’m not especially worried about you breaking through my shield spell. No offense.”

“Um, none taken I guess. If--If you’re sure then,” he said. Angus stood from the bench and walked a few feet away to stand in front of Lup. With carefully practiced technique, Angus cast a competent, if a little weak, fireball at her. It slammed harmlessly against the side of her shield before fizzling out. Lup nodded encouragingly.

“Not bad, kid. Even if you were holding out on me.”

“I’m sorry Miss Lup. I just really don’t want to hurt you.”

“Don’t worry about it Angus. I’ve burnt myself pretty badly learning new spells before. I can handle a little fireball. Now come on, I’ll show you how to make it super powerful now.”

Lup couldn’t demonstrate how to do the spell without a target to aim at. And she certainly wasn’t going to take a shot at Angus. She managed to walk him through the spell pretty well without the demonstration though. By the end of their impromptu lesson, Angus had managed to make a fireball that was nearly twice as big as the first. When it slammed into her shield spell it was obviously much more powerful too. As the fire fizzled out, Lup cheered and dropped her shield before running to Angus and scooping him up in a hug. 

“Nicely done Angus! You’ve got great control over your magic. Maybe you should consider becoming an evocation wizard,” she told him. 

“Thank you Miss Lup!” Angus said cheerfully as he hugged her back. “I actually think I’d like to focus more on divination magic though. It’ll be more helpful for when I’m a detective.”

“Well if you change your mind you know where to find me,” Lup said. “Maybe we can keep doing lessons though. If you get really good control over your magic you can do cool stuff like this.”

Lup raised her wand with flourish before scorching her name into the cafeteria wall. She turned to smirk proudly at Angus but immediately burst into laughter at the horrified look on his face.

“Miss Lup!” he scolded. 

“What? The wall is fine,” she said dismissively. “Besides, I think it looks better this way.”

“Lup, would you please refrain from teaching our youngest Bureau member that vandalism is ok?” asked a voice from behind them. Lup whipped her head around to find the Director, standing with her arms crossed and her brow raised. 

“Oh, um, heyyy there Lucretia,” Lup laughed nervously. “We were just, uhhh, having a magic lesson. It might have gotten a little out of hand. You can’t blame little Ango for wanting to burn his favorite mentors name into the wall though. He was just so excited about our first lesson."

“Hey!” Angus objected. Lucretia gave her an amused smile. 

“Just promise me these magic lessons won’t happen in the cafeteria anymore and I’ll let you off with a warning,” Lucretia said. 

“Deal! C’mon Angus, let’s get out of here!” Lup said, grabbing Angus by the arm and dragging him out of the cafeteria.

“Oh, um, ok! Goodbye Miss Lucretia! Thank You!” Angus called over his shoulder before being dragged away.

Lucretia smiled and waved goodbye to the two of them until they were out of sight. As soon as they were gone she felt the sadness overcome her. It was so hard to see the two of them together. They should have been a family. They should have always had each other. Angus should have grown up learning evocation magic from her, and getting roped into playing pranks on Taako, and getting spoiled rotten by her. Lup would be a great aunt. She would have made sure that Angus always knew that she loved him with all her heart. Her and all the rest of the crew. She could only hope that once this was all over Angus would have the family he should have had all along. 

It wasn’t just the rest of the crew she regretted taking from him. She regretted the loss of her place in his life as well. She wanted nothing more than to get closer to the boy but she knew that she had to keep her distance. It would only make it more painful once everyone remembered again. Once upon a time, Taako would have considered her Angus’ aunt without hesitation. After what she had done though, she would be lucky if she were even allowed to see Angus again. 

She tried her best to make her peace with that. She didn’t deserve a place in Angus’ life, or any of their lives really. That was fine. She could accept whatever the consequences would be as long as the world was safe and her family was happy in the end. Even if it meant losing the people she loved most.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry I've been gone forever! Between moving, band camp, and school starting again I haven't gotten a chance to write much for this. Now that I'm back in school though my life will have more structure to it again so hopefully I'll get to update more frequently. But the good news is that I recently reworked the ending of this fic and it's going to be much better and more exciting now (in my opinion at least). So I'm super excited to get to it now and hopefully that will motivate me to write more.


	19. Lunar Interlude: Family Bonding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here have 12 pages of unapologetic fluff because I have no self control. Plot is overrated anyways

Angus was on his way back to his dorm when Magnus flagged him down.

“Ango!” he yelled as he charged down the hall. Angus stopped in his tracks and waited for Magnus to catch up to him. Seconds later Magnus came screeching to a halt in front of him, barely managing to avoid running into him. 

“Hello sir! Did you need something?” Angus asked while Magnus caught his breath. 

“Yeah actually. I was wondering if you wanted to help me with a top secret mission,” Magnus said. Angus’ eyes went wide.

“What kind of secret mission?” he asked. 

Magnus looked around dramatically before leaning down to whisper, “We’re gonna surprise Miss Julia.” 

“I wanna help!” Angus said immediately. Magnus laughed at his enthusiasm. 

“I thought you might. Here’s the deal. Julia’s coming up for a visit tonight and I wanna make it extra special since we haven’t seen each other in a while. I need you to help me set up and to buy me some time while I finish preparing. This is a very crucial role Angus. Do you think you can handle it?” Magnus asked with mock seriousness.

“I can handle it,” Angus said, trying to look serious as well before breaking into a smile. 

“Good cause we’ve got lots to do. Let’s get started,” Magnus said, taking off down the hall without waiting to see if Angus followed. Angus trailed after him, eager to see what Julia’s surprise would be.

 

When Julia sees the glass sphere come to a stop in the field in front of her, she expects to be greeted by her husband. Instead, running excitedly in her direction is the curly haired little boy she’s met a handful of times since last Candlenights. 

“Hello Miss Julia!” he greets her. Julia pulls him into a hug which he returns happily.

“Hello to you too Angus! Are you here to pick me up?” she asks. Angus pulls away just enough that she can see him nod. 

“Magnus said that you were coming and I was excited to see you so he said I could come get you,” Angus told her, doing his absolute best to sound convincing. Julia wasn’t totally convinced but she kept her suspicions to herself. 

“Well that was very kind of you Angus,” she said instead. “Now let’s head up before that thing takes off without us.” She let Angus pull her by the hand over to the sphere and they both stepped inside and buckled themselves in. Shortly after they began floating towards the base. 

The trip up towards the Bureau was still a little disorienting for Julia. She had only been up there a handful of times, Magnus usually came to her instead, so she hadn’t quite gotten used to it yet. She had to admit though, the view was always beautiful. The world stretched out endlessly below her, the last light of day painting the sky with pinks and oranges and purples. It was breathtaking. Almost enough to make her forget how sick the height made her. 

Julia watched as the moonbase grew closer and closer until they drifted up into the entrance to the hangar. Once they landed, Julia hopped out of the sphere and looked around. Magnus was still nowhere in sight. Now she’s certain that something is going on. Angus tugs on her sleeve to get her attention. 

“Miss Julia, I’ve learned lots of cool new spells with Miss Lup since I last saw you. Do you wanna see some of the stuff we’ve been working on?” Angus asked. Julia studied him carefully before answering. Wide eyed innocence was carefully painted across his face.

“Sure, Angus. I’d love to see what you’ve been working on,” she finally said. Angus grinned triumphantly and took her hand once more, guiding her across the campus. 

“We have to go to the training room first just to be safe. I don’t wanna break anything on accident,” Angus said. Julia let herself be dragged along behind him. The more they walked though, the more she doubted that’s where they were actually going. They were walking away from the more populated areas, heading towards what seemed to be an empty field instead. As they got closer Julia could begin to pick out the silhouettes of people and soon realized that she’d finally found Magnus. He waved enthusiastically at her when he spotted her coming. Julia squeezed Angus’ hand before dropping it to sprint across the field, throwing herself happily into her husband's arms.

Magnus caught her easily, spinning her around once before pulling her into a kiss. Despite being in some weird moonbase she’d barely spent any time in, it felt like coming home. It had been far too long since they’d seen each other. When they finally broke apart, Magnus buried his face in her shoulder, pulling her impossibly closer.

“I’ve missed you, Jules,” he mumbled. Julia ran her hands soothingly through his hair. 

“Missed you too, Mags,” she said, placing a gentle kiss on the top of his head. “Now, are you gonna tell me what you’ve been scheming?” 

“Oh yeah!” Magnus says, pulling away from her shoulder. “I was thinking we haven’t gotten to have an actual date in a long time, so we should have one tonight,” he explains as he guides her over to the picnic blanket and basket that he’d so carefully laid out. Julia gave him a completely lovestruck smile. 

“I love you so much, you big sap,” she said happily before pulling him in for another kiss. When they part, Magnus moves to sit down on the blanket and start pulling things out of the picnic basket. Julia takes her seat next to him. 

“Angus helped me make most of this stuff, so it’s definitely going to be good,” Magnus says as he pulls out a small feast. Julia glances around in search of the boy and finds him chatting with who she can now see is Lup. She’d been so caught up in her surprise she’d lost track of him for a bit. 

“Magnus, is there another part to this surprise?” she asks with a pointed look at Lup. 

“There might be,” he says. He quickly finishes up setting up dinner and hands her a plate. The two of them dish up and Julia waits in suspense for whatever part two might be. 

Magnus waits until they’re both ready to start eating before shouting, “Lup, now!”

“You got it Mango!” she shouts back. She draws her wand and makes sure Angus is safely behind her before lighting up the sky with a beautiful display of fireworks. If there’s one thing Lup is good at, it’s pyrotechnics and she’s not holding anything back tonight. 

Julia watches in awe as the different colors streak across the sky. She’d been to a few festivals where they had done fireworks before but she’d never seen any as skillfully done as this. She turns to face man who arranged this all and finds him already looking at her, watching her reaction. Julia smiles and scoots closer to him, leaning her head on his shoulder and humming contentedly when his arm wraps around her waist. 

“Thank you for doing this all for me,” she says. “You really did an incredible job.”

“Anything for you, Jules,” he says sincerely. Julia burrows further into his side and the two of them watch the rest of the display. They cheer Angus on when Lup lets him try a few fireworks of his own and clap loudly during Lup’s big finale. Once the show is over, the two of them join them on the blanket and help them finish off the rest of the feast. Angus leans against Julia’s other side and Lup sprawls across the rest of the blanket with her hands behind her head and her feet in Magnus’ lap. 

They all stay there like that until it’s too late to stay up any longer. Angus has already fallen asleep. At some point he’d ended up laying in Julia’s lap rather than against her shoulder. Lup carefully picks him up, hushing soothingly when he starts to wake. Once he’s securely in her arms, she mumbles something about taking Angus to his dorm and wanders off, leaving the two of them alone. 

They slowly get to work packing up the picnic. The excitement from earlier had died down and left them both exhausted. Dishes were placed haphazardly back into the basket and the blanket was balled up enough to carry. They could deal with it all properly in the morning. 

The walk back to Magnus’ dorm was quiet. It was only when they had reached their destination and were climbing into bed that Julia broke the silence.

“I love you Mags,” she whispered as they settled under the covers.

“I love you too Jules,” he whispered back.

 

________

 

Merle was finally headed to bed after a long night of stargazing. He hadn’t intended to stay out for as long as he had, but he’d been too caught up in his thoughts to notice the hours slipping away. Part of him didn’t want to sleep anyways. Didn’t want to chance the nightmares. They weren’t always a regular occurrence for him, but every once in a while he’d go through periods where they’d plague him for days or weeks. The subject of them varied. Sometimes it was of his kids hating him forever after what he’d done, or of Lup and Magnus replacing him. Sometimes he woke up with static filling his mind and tears running down his face. He never knew what to make of those dreams. Lately it had been losing his arm. It had been such a stupid mistake. What kind of cleric couldn’t even recognize their own god? Sometimes he thinks that Lup and Magnus really should replace him. He couldn’t even keep himself safe, much less the two of them. They’d probably be better off without him. 

Before he can spiral too deep into those thoughts he smells something baking as he walks past the cafeteria. He’s both hungry and curious enough to investigate who decided baking at 2 am seemed like a good idea, so he quietly wanders inside. The sounds of clattering dishes guide him as he makes his way towards the kitchen. He pushes past the swinging doors only to find Angus Mcdonald fussing over whatever he’d been making. Wonderful. Just who he wanted to see. He tries to back out of the room but the movement caught Angus’ attention.

“Oh. Hello sir,” Angus said, blinking at him in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“I--I just wanted to see who in their right mind was up this late is all,” Merle said. Angus raised an eyebrow at him. 

“You’re up too,” he pointed out. Merle didn’t have an argument for that.

“Yeah well...I’m going to bed. Goodnight kid,” he said as he turned to leave.

“Wait!” Angus called after him. “I made a bunch of macaroons and I don’t really know what to do with them. Do you, um, I was just wondering if you wanted some?” Merle glanced over his shoulder and considered him for a moment. Angus’ hands twisted at his shirtsleeves and his tiny pointed ears flicking nervously. Merle sighed heavily before walking back into the kitchen.

“Alright, fine. But only because I’m hungry,” he said, resignation heavy in his voice. Angus’ face lit up. 

“Ok sir!” he said, hurriedly plating the macaroons and bringing them out towards the tables. Merle slowly trailed behind him and took the seat across from him. 

“They’re not as good as my dad’s, but I’ve been practicing a lot and they’ve gotten much better!” Angus babbled, trying to fill the awkward silence between them. Merle paid him no mind. He just picked up a macaroon from the plate and took a tentative bite. Immediately he was flooded with an overwhelming emotion that he didn’t have a name for. It was like...being reunited with something he’d missed dearly, except he couldn’t for the life of him think of why that might be. Everytime he tried to think of it, his thoughts turned to static. But that didn’t make sense either. They’d already been innoculated. So why....

“Merle?” Angus asked, jolting him from his thoughts. “Are you ok?” 

“Yeah, I’m uh, I’m fine kid. What were you doing baking so late anyways?” Angus started worrying at his sleeves again. 

“Well I couldn’t really sleep and it was getting frustrating just laying there so I just started walking around campus. And then I saw the cafeteria and it made me think of how my dad always bakes when he’s stressed and...I dunno, I just decided to try it I guess,” he said. 

“What do you even have to be stressed about kid?” Merle asked.

“I’m a ten year old working for a secret organization on the moon, sir. I have plenty to be stressed about,” Angus retorted. 

Merle snorted at that. “Is that what’s bugging you then. Working for the Bureau?” 

Angus shook his head. “No it’s not that. I love working here. It’s just...I feel like I don’t really fit in here I guess.” 

“Seriously? But everyone here adores you,” Merle said. 

“Not everyone,” Angus said with a pointed look.

“Most everyone then,” Merle amended. Angus just shrugged. 

“I know that people here like me, but they don’t treat me like a peer. No matter what I do or how hard I work everyone just treats me like a little kid instead of an equal. And because I’m so much younger than everyone here it’s hard to find anyone who wants to spend any time with me and I just…” Angus cuts himself off to scrub at his eyes under his glasses. Merle is starting to question how he got himself into this mess. He should have just gone straight back to his dorm.

“Listen, Angus. They treat you like a kid because you are a kid. That’s not a bad thing. And it doesn’t mean that they don’t care about you or respect you any less. They might show it differently because you’re younger but that doesn’t make it any less real. Hell kid, you’re one of the most competent people in this whole organization. I’m the one who should be worried about respect, not you. At least you can do your job right.”

“What do you mean, sir?” Angus asked. Whoops. He said way more than he should have right there. He blamed the late hour. He was too tired to filter his thoughts right now. 

“Nothing. Just forget it,” Merle said. Angus leveled him with a disapproving look. “Alright, fine. I’m just not very good at my job is all. Lup and Magnus would probably be better off without me. I can’t even manage to heal them most of the time.”

“They wouldn’t be better without you,” Angus said.

“It’s fine kid, I know I’m a shitty cleric,” said Merle. 

“I mean it. They’re better with you there. They’re always happier when you’re with them. And you do take care of them, even if it’s not necessarily with healing magic. You look out for them and make sure they take care of themselves. And maybe they’re not religious, but I think that you’ve shown them how to have faith as well.”

“I don’t know about that, but thanks kid,” Merle said with a bitter smile. 

“Well, I hope that you believe it one day Merle, because it’s true.” Whatever Angus was going to say next was cut off by a yawn. Merle was suddenly reminded of the time. 

“Go to bed kid. It’s late,” he said.

“But I have to clean up the kitchen,” Angus protested. Merle waved him off. 

“Just leave it. The kitchen staff can handle it in the morning.”

“I guess,” Angus said, still looking uncertain. His exhaustion must have won out though, because he got up from the bench and started towards the door. 

“Goodnight sir,” he said as he left.

“Goodnight kid,” Merle replied. As he watched him go, Merle came to the horrifying realization that he was actually feeling fond for the kid. 

Well shit.

________

Ever since Angus had joined the Bureau, Lucretia had found that she worked alone less and less. He’d come in to her office and start doing his research alongside her. This was perfectly fine by her. She cherished any time she got to spend with her would-be nephew. And having him by her side meant that she knew he was safe. Angus working for a secret and dangerous organization was worrying, even if she was the one running it. Especially then. 

The arrangement ended up being good for the both of them. On their own, both of them tended to get so caught up in work that they forgot to take care of themselves. At least between the two of them, one of them was bound to remember eventually. Lucretia found it was easier to remember that meals were important when a small child was in your care too. Though it was usually Lucretia who took care of Angus, every so often it was the other way around.

“You should take a break,” Angus told her from his side of the desk.

“I don’t have time to take a break,” Lucretia sighed. She had been reading through the theories and information the Seekers had submitted to her about the next grand relic. They were still looking for a lead on its location. So far, none of it looked promising. 

“You’ve just been staring at the same page for the past five minutes,” Angus pointed out. “You’d probably get more work done if you took a break and came back to it.”

“Alright. You might have a point,” Lucretia said. “What should we do for our break then Angus?”

Angus thought about it for a moment. “We could do what my dad likes to do when we take breaks from magic lessons?” he suggested. 

“And what’s that?” Lucretia asked, though she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.

“Paint our nails and gossip. He says I’m fun to gossip with because I’m so nosy,” he says matter of factly. Lucretia can’t help but grin at that though her stomach twists at the mention of Taako. 

“Alright, let’s do it. I think I’ve got some nail polish in here somewhere,” Lucretia said, digging through their desk. 

Lucretia sticks with her signature blue but Angus choses a bright red. She tries her best not to read too much into that. The two of them carefully get to work on their nails while Angus fills her in on the latest Bureau gossip. 

“I think that Carey and Killian are finally going to get together soon. Avi started a betting pool awhile ago, and I know I’m not allowed to join, but I heard Carey and Magnus talking earlier and…”

As he chatters away she can’t help but think of another moment in her life which was painfully similar to this one.

_“Lucyyyyy,” Taako whined. “You’ve been at it forever. It’s time for a break.”_

_“I don’t need a break Taako,” she responded, not bothering to look up from her journal. She had been sketching some plants that Merle had brought back for her to document. He had said something about them having unique properties but she hadn’t been paying much attention. Listening to Merle talk about plants was a risk she hadn’t wanted to take._

_“You’re taking one anyways,” Taako declared, plucking the journal from her hand and ignoring her when she protested. Instead he dropped down on the couch next to her and tossed the journal onto the coffee table. A bottle of nail polish was pressed into her hand and she instantly realized what was happening._

_“You just want someone to complain to,” she accused._

_“I definitely, definitely do,” Taako said, uncapping his bottle and getting to work. Lucretia rolled her eyes and followed his lead. There was no stopping him and she knew it._

_“Is it Lup and Barry again?” she asked._

_“Yes! I can’t work with them anymore Lucy, I just can’t! It’s so painfully obvious that they’re into each other but neither of them will suck it up and do anything about it…”_

Lucretia smiled sadly at the memory. When she had first met Angus, she had been surprised at how much he contrasted his father. Angus was exceedingly polite, cared deeply and openly for everyone he encountered, and was very driven by morality and justice. He didn’t at all seem like he’d been raised by Taako. The more she got to know him though, the more she realized they were painfully similar. Some of their similarities were more superficial--both were sarcastic and blunt and had a tendency to show off. But it was more than that too. They were both loyal to a fault. They had the same thirst for knowledge, though Taako never liked to admit to that trait of his. They were both more powerful than they let on and used this to their advantage. And they both cared so deeply for others, even if they expressed it in different ways. Lucretia could see all the best of Taako in his son, and she was so proud. He’d done such a good job raising Angus, even after everything she had taken from him. And she knew he was happy in the life he had built for himself. She was so grateful that he was. After all, if anyone had earned that happiness, it was him. 

________

Angus had been pushing himself past his limits for the past few days. He couldn’t help it. It was just so frustrating to get stuck in his investigation so soon after joining the Bureau. He’d done an alright job helping with the Philosopher's Stone mission. Sure, he’d been pretty sure he’d let all the Reclaimers die at one point, but other than that it went ok. But now that he’d been assigned to help locate one of the Grand Relics, he’d hit a dead end. He couldn’t find a single piece of information about the Temporal Chalice. 

The Director had told him that this one would be tricky to find. Apparently this relic was the only one to not have any record of destruction during the war. Whether that’s because it hadn’t been used or because it’s impossible to know if it had been used or not is unknown. All he knows is that he’d never been this stuck with a case and that it was driving him crazy.

So maybe he hadn’t slept properly in a few days. And maybe he’d been accidentally missing meals in favor of staying holed up in the library. But if that’s what it takes to solve this then he’d gladly do it. 

He was currently skimming a book on the history of the relic wars, hoping to find some mention of the Chalice or even just inconsistencies in the timeline. Every few sentences or so he would get distracted by a coughing fit or his drooping eyelids. The trash can by his chair was now piled high with tissues. He felt fine though. At least, that’s what he told himself. He needed to feel fine so that he could finish this. 

Ugly, broken coughs wracked his body for the third time in the past five minutes. When he finally recovered enough to get his breathing back under control, he looked up to find Davenport staring at him with a stern expression. 

“Oh, hello sir,” Angus rasped. Davenport narrowed his eyes at him.

“Davenport,” he said disapprovingly. 

“I’m fine sir, really. It’s just a little cough,” Angus said. Davenport shook his head. 

“Davenport,” he said, more firmly this time. 

“I just need a little more time. I’ll get this done and then I’ll get some rest, I promise,” Angus pleaded. Davenport wasn’t swayed. He just pulled the book gently from Angus’ grasp and set it aside. Before Angus could argue, he had already turned and began to walk away, gesturing for Angus to follow. Angus had little choice but to do as told, barely keeping up with Davenport’s surprisingly fast pace. 

When Davenport finally came to a stop, it was in front of Angus’ dorm. He stood outside the door and stared up at him expectantly. Angus reluctantly pulled out his key and let them in. When he stepped into the room his bed looked more inviting than ever. Angus crawled under the covers without needing to be told. Once he was settled, he felt Davenport remove his glasses and put them on his nightstand. The covers were pulled up snugly around his chin and his hair was brushed away from his face. The last thing he heard was one final soft, “Davenport” before he finally drifted off to sleep. 

 

When Angus awoke hours later he found that he wasn’t alone. Sitting at his desk in the corner of the room was his dad, watching him with concern written clearly across his face. As soon as he realized he’d woken up, Taako had moved to sit next to him on the bed.

“Hey Dad,” Angus said with a sheepish grin. Taako frowned at him. 

“Don’t you ‘hey dad’ me little man. How come I didn’t know you were sick until the Bureau called saying you were passed out in bed, huh?” Angus looked away guiltily. 

“I just wanted to be able to find something helpful for this assignment. I know that there were a lot of exceptional circumstances when they hired me and...I just wanted to prove that I deserve to be here,” Angus admitted. Taako sighed heavily and pulled the boy into his arms. 

“You don’t need to prove yourself to anyone Angus,” Taako said. “Everyone already knows you’re the world’s greatest detective or whatever. How could they not? I mean, do you see any other babies running around this place?”

“I’m not a baby!” Angus protested. Taako just ignored him. 

“You’ve already proven that you deserve to be here boychik. You don’t need to get all discouraged because you’re having a hard time finding something that’s nearly impossible to track. And you definitely don’t need to make yourself sick doing it. Ok?” Taako asked.

“Ok,” Angus conceded. Taako nodded in approval.

“Good. Now come on, we’re going home and giving you the proper sick boy treatment.” Taako said as he stood, gesturing for Angus to do the same. Angus only raised his arms and looked at him with pleading eyes. Taako glared down at him before rolling his eyes in defeat. He bent down and scooped his son up in his arms, struggling before finally managing to lift him. 

“You’re lucky you’re cute Agnes,” Taako said as he carried him out of the room. Angus didn’t bother replying. He just snuggled happily into his father’s arms and drifted off to sleep. 

________

When Kravitz returns home from work he finds Taako keeping watch over a sleeping Angus. 

“Is something wrong?” Kravitz asked, suddenly worried. 

“Eh nothing much. Kid’s just a little sick is all,” Taako said with a shrug. “Now that you’re here though…” Taako got up and grabbed Kravitz’s arm, dragging him over to where he’d been sitting by Angus’ bed. He pushed him into his chair and turned his attention to his son, carefully pulling the cold pack from his forehead. 

“This things been out too long, I gotta replace it. Think you can keep him from overheating till I get back?” Taako asked.

“I--I guess?” Kravitz said.

“Excellent.” Taako took his hand and gently laid it across Angus’ forehead. He gave him a “Thanks, bones” and a kiss on the cheek before walking away, leaving Kravitz alone. 

The thing about sick children is that Kravitz didn’t know what to do with them. Logically he knew that Taako would be back soon but he still felt a little panicked at being left alone. 

Angus began to shift and mumble in his sleep, startling Kravitz out of his spiraling thoughts. He took a deep breath to try and calm his nerves and started rubbing soothing circles into Angus’ forehead, trying to lull him back into restfulness. 

Angus’ eyes blink open and he squints at him, trying to make him out through the sleepiness and his lack of glasses. It was obvious that he was barely conscious. 

“Go back to sleep sweetheart,” Kravitz whispered, still tracing idle patterns with his thumb. Angus blinked up at him a few seconds more before closing his eyes and settling back in. 

“Ok Papa,” Angus mumbled before falling back asleep. Kravitz froze. His eyes went wide as he stared at the sleeping child in front of him. He glanced over his shoulder. Taako hadn’t come back yet. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It was probably for the best since this wasn’t something that he and Taako had ever talked about. Sure they were serious about each other but Kravitz acting as a parent to Taako’s child was a lot, and their relationship was still relatively new. He knew that serious commitment still tended to freak him out sometimes. So maybe he should be grateful that Taako wasn’t here for this.

On the other hand Angus had called him papa and he was freaking out and didn’t know what to do about it. He wasn’t opposed to the idea it was just...a lot. It was just a lot and something he hadn’t thought he would even have to think about for a long time. 

He tried to calm himself down. Angus probably wouldn’t even remember that this happened when he woke up. Taako wasn’t here to consider having a conversation that neither of them were ready to have. It was fine. He just needed to calm down and try to forget that it ever happened. If in the future they decided to have a serious talk about officially becoming a family then that would be fine. It would be good even. But for now, he wanted to take his time getting there. 

 

Taako had heard what Angus had said. He may have been spying a little bit. Sue him, he likes seeing his boyfriend dote on his son. But after what he’d heard he retreated to the hallway to freak out in private. 

He loved Kravitz. He really did. But Angus calling him papa scared the shit out of him. He wasn’t ready for that level of commitment. If there was anyone he could see himself eventually being able to have that with, it was Kravitz. But he still needed to work through some stuff before that. 

Taako couldn’t just tie himself to people so easily. There’s still a part of him that sees everyone as untrustworthy, that thinks the only person he can count on is himself. He’d learned that lesson well early on and he couldn’t just stop believing it. The expectations that came with such a serious relationship scared him as well. He didn’t like having so much responsibility in another person’s happiness. He was always so certain that he would let the other person down. He knew that he was selfish. Putting other people first was hard for him. For most of his life, he’d never had to do it. Making a mistake like that would have gotten him killed. 

Angus was the only exception to that. He’d had to learn to prioritize his wellbeing. It had been hard at first, and there were times when he messed up. Raising him had been so wholly against every one of his instincts. It had been more worth it though. And one day Kravitz would be too. But that was something to worry about later. Right now, he just wanted to enjoy what he had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taako: Sorry kid I'm gonna have to kick you out since you replaced me as your father
> 
> Angus: What are you talking about?
> 
> Taako: Well you called Krav papa the other night so I guess you don't need me anymore
> 
> Angus:.....I what??


	20. The Eleventh Hour Part 1

Lup wasn’t completely confident that Avi’s cannon idea was going to work. Especially since Avi didn’t sound completely confident either. But as much as she didn’t like the thought of slamming straight into the side of the bubble while going fast enough to break the sound barrier, it was the only idea they had. So she got into the newly dubbed “Yeager Bomb” without complaint and hoped for the best. 

Avi couldn’t give them a countdown, so a barely audible “Mark!” is all the warning she gets before the three of them are hurtling incomprehensibly fast into the bubble. 

The sound of it was deafening. A sound like waves rolling in filled her ears until she couldn’t even hear herself think. Her vision went white until--as suddenly as they had taken off--they were no longer in the cannon ball. Instead they found themselves in a white space, completely empty with the exception of an old woman standing in front of them and holding a large, ornate cup. Recognition flashes in her eyes when she sees them and she gasps.

“It’s you,” she says, disbelief clear in her voice. “Find me.”

She’s gone before they can even respond.

 

This mission was already going poorly to say the least. They’d been here for less than an hour and they’d already managed to get in trouble with the law, break out of prison, and now they’d stumbled into a bank robbery. Lup was hoping for another low casualty mission but it didn’t seem like that would be the case today. 

Still, that wouldn’t stop her from trying. Magnus is already inside the building and she follows close behind. She can hear Merle flipping through his bible as he comes in after them. Most of the people inside have already been killed by the explosion. The only remaining survivors are the three bandits engaged in combat with Roswell and a dwarven woman who appears to be on the brink of death. 

Lup rushes to the woman side, picking her up as gently as she can and carrying her out of the bank with Merle. The woman blinks up at her as they go, confusion written clearly across her face.

“Who...the fuck...are you guys?” she rasps. 

“Don’t worry about it babe, we’re just here to help,” Lup reassures her. When they’re a safe enough distance from the bank Lup sets her down and lets Merle get to work. 

They’d finally gotten the woman stable when Magnus came bursting through the doors of the bank. As soon as he makes it out, the entire building collapses. Magnus makes an aborted move towards it, obviously wanting to go back and save Roswell, but there’s nothing he can do. 

Before any of them can figure out what to do next, a loud chiming rings out across Refuge as the clock strikes noon. And then the earth begins to tremble. People around them lose their footing as the tremor becomes more intense, showing no signs of stopping. 

Large fissures open up in the ground as the shaking intensifies. Bright light pours from the cracks as they open further. It’s the only warning they get to the plume of unbearable heat that follows. The ground beneath them swells and there is only a moment where they can see Refuge collapsing before the ground gives way beneath them. For a long moment, all they know is the searing heat and the sensation of being crushed by the shattered earth. And then--

\--And then Lup remembers. 

The sudden onslaught of memories is painful, almost more so than dying had been. She screams in agony as she tries and fails to process it all. She remembers the mission. She remembers a century worth of running and fighting which always felt as if it was in vain. She remembers her family, and the love of her life, and her brother--god her brother. How could she have forgotten him? When he was lost--when he had needed her the most she hadn’t even remember that he existed. It had been over a decade since he disappeared. By now he was probably--

There was a terrifying moment where she lost her composure in every sense of the word. She felt her entire form jerk and spasm as she fought for control. When she finally recentered herself, she found that she had returned to the white space again. Magnus and Merle were staring at her with open disbelief. She had no idea how much of this they understood. If she was still a lich, then in this space they were technically dead. But if their reaction was anything to go by there was definitely still some confusion.

“...Lup?” Magnus asked. Before she could respond she was interrupted by the old woman.

“Oh, you’ll have to do much better than that, loves,” she said.

And then they wake up.

 

Static fills Lup’s mind the second she resets in Refuge. She panics, trying to remember anything that might clue her in to what was happening and why. She remembered dying, but it felt like there was more to it than that. Maybe they went to the white space again? Her memories of what happened were so vague. Every time she tried to remember something more detailed the static got worse. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. She had already been inoculated. So why--

Over the static, Lup thinks she hears a voice. It sounds distant, but the more she focuses on it the clearer it sounds. She lets the voice ground her, abandoning all thoughts of dying until the static clears and she can finally make out what’s being said to her.

“...Lup? You alright kid?” The voice, who she can now tell is Merle, asks her. Lup blinks rapidly as she’s jolted back to awareness. Judging by the concerned looks she was receiving, she’d been zoned out for quite awhile.

“‘Course I’m alright,” Lup said in a valiant attempt to pretend nothing had just happened. This only seemed to worry Merle more.

“You sure about that? You seemed pretty out of it for a minute there. And you were crying,” he points out. Lup brings a hand up to her face and is surprised to find it soaked with tears. She quickly swipes them away from her face, as if she could make Merle forget what he saw if she erased the evidence. 

“Yep! I’m perfectly fine. Now come on. It looks like we’ve been given another shot at doing this and we’ve got a pretty definite time limit,” Lup said. She gave them both her most convincing smile before marching her way past Refuge’s gates, not waiting for them to follow. 

 

Once they make their way past Roswell, the three of them see some dudes in purple kerchiefs being blasted out of the Davy Lamp. They decide that seems like as good a place to investigate as any. Lup walks into the saloon and immediately begins searching for whoever made that shot. She smiles when her eyes land on the drow woman holstering her wand behind the bar. Finally, another competent woman. 

Lup makes her way over to the bar and drapes herself across it, giving the bartender a winning smile. 

“That was a heck of a shot there, babe,” she says. The bartender looked confused to see her but returned her smile anyways.

“Why thank you. Sorry but, I don’t think I know you. And that’s a pretty strange thing around these parts.”

“Oh my name’s Lup. I’m just, uh, just passing through,” she said.

“Well it’s nice to meet you Lup. My name’s Ren,”

“It’s nice to meet you too dear,” Lup glanced over her shoulder to figure out what had happened to Magnus and Merle and has to clap her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. The two of them were already well on their way to starting a fight. Knowing that Ren wouldn’t appreciate the trouble they were undoubtedly starting, though, she kept her amusement to herself. 

“So Ren, can I ask a kinda weird question? What’s with the bubble?”

Ren told her about how it had been about a year since the bubble had gone up. She explained some of their history as a mining town that fell on hard times when the mine dried up. She also gave her some context to the mantra that everyone kept repeating. Apparently Jack and June were the ones who made the sacrifice, which did something to protect the town, she supposed. It all still seemed pretty vague.

Before Lup can ask her more about it, whatever chaos Magnus and Merle had been creating finally comes to a head. She turned to see a very angry looking Goliath staring down Magnus.

“If we’re gonna do this thing let’s fucking do this thing,” she heard him say.

Ren intervenes before the situation can get too out of hand. “Hey, hey, cut that shit out. Give them their diamonds and get out of here. If you’re gonna cause trouble— Lup, are these guys with you?”

“I have never seen those two before in my life,” Lup says completely straight faced. 

Magnus and Merle take off running out of the building and she just watches them go. She can catch up with them later.

“Good riddance,” Ren muttered as they disappeared through the door. 

“Some people just have no manners,” said Lup.

“That one guy actually looked kind of familiar. I don’t know where I would know him from though.” That definitely caught Lup’s attention.

“Which guy?” she asked

“The big beefy human guy. I just can’t shake the feeling that I’ve met him before.”

“Maybe you have. He seemed kinda folksy. He could have came through here before,” Lup suggested.

“Maybe…” As Ren trailed off, earthquakes began to tear through the town and Lup realized that her time was running out. She’d have to wrap this up quick.

With a little more probing Lup got some pretty good leads from Ren. She found out that the bubble was definitely related to Jack and June’s sacrifice as well as some mysterious person called “the Visitor.” She also found out that she should go visit someone named Paloma if she wanted more information. That seemed like plenty to go off of for now so Lup made her excuses and took off to find Merle and Magnus. 

 

One conversation with Paloma and a bank robbery later and it was noon once again. Refuge crumbled down around them in a burst of fire as the clocktower rang like a death toll. And for another horrible moment, Lup remembered again. She didn’t come as close to losing herself this time but it was still a close thing. She barely heard the old woman telling them that they had somehow done worse this time. She needed to figure out how to stay dead. It was the only way that she was going to fix any of this.

 

“Lup? You’re crying again,” is the first thing Magnus says to her after the reset. It surprises Lup this time just as much as the first.

“Oh. Sorry, I dont--I don’t know why…” Lup says as she brushes the tears away. 

“Hey Lup? What do you remember from the resets? Because after we explode and die and stuff, me and Merle have been going to this weird white space. And I remember you going there with us when we first got here, but not on the last two resets. And...I also think we’ve been seeing a red robe there? I don't know. I don’t really remember it that well to be perfectly honest,” Magnus says.

“Well, I’ve been going, uh, I’ve been going to…” Lup tries to remember, but everything after dying feels just out of reach. Every time she thinks she remembers something--the white space, the old woman--it dissolves into static. She can feel her breath quicken as she tries and fails to bring those memories back. It just doesn’t make sense. Why can’t she remember?

“Whoa, hey! Lup, it’s ok. I need you to calm down ok?” Magnus said, pulling her hands away from where she’d been clawing at her ears in panic. When had she started doing that?

“I need you to breathe with me ok?” Magnus starts taking long breaths in and out and Lup eventually manages to mimic him. He guides her like that until her breath stops hitching and some of the tension melts from her body, then steps back to give her some space. 

“Do you think the red robes are messing with us? And that’s why Lup doesn’t come to the white space with us?” Merle asks.

“Probably. Either way I guess it doesn’t matter as long as we all make it back here,” Magnus shrugs.

“Yeah, it doesn’t matter. Let’s just keep moving forward ok?” Lup says. The other two agree and they make their way back into town and down into the quarry.

 

It’s an odd thing to be grateful for death, but as Lup’s soul rises from her body in the aftermath of the explosion, she feels nothing but relief. It was only 11:15 this time. They’d died early on trying to solve some locker puzzle. Now that she had time, she had to figure out a plan before she lost her memories again.

She needed to stay dead. That was the only way she was going to be able to remember without inoculating herself, which she definitely wouldn’t be able to do if Lucretia had any say in it. So, she needed to find a way to remember to die or get herself killed after she reset. And she had to make sure it happened on their last reset. And she had to do it without altering the world around her in any way because the changes won’t last. Wonderful.

First, she needed to start with what she knew. She could communicate with Magnus and Merle in the white space. That, at least, had some potential. The problem was that their memory there was fuzzy. There was no guarantee that they’d even remember what she told them. Even if they did, they’d only remember her as a “red robe” anyways. Being told by their supposed enemy to kill their teammate probably wouldn’t compel them to actually go through with it. So that probably wasn’t an option.

She could try the old woman. She wasn’t exactly sure how she fit into this whole thing but maybe she’d be able to remember. If she wouldn’t kill her, she might at least pass the message along. 

Investigating the rest of Refuge might not be a bad idea either. If the three of them could remember the resets then maybe they weren’t the only ones. Or maybe she could find someone powerful enough to alter the loops. The chances were slim but it was worth a shot.

Lup backtracked her way out of the quarry. They were going further in soon anyways, there was no point to her searching it by herself. Instead she returned to Refuge only to begin wandering aimlessly and out of sight. She’s not really sure where she should be going. Somewhere she hadn’t been before seemed like as good a choice as any. She’d start with the temple. She could really use some divine intervention right about now.

Even having known that the temple was destroyed, it was still a little dismaying to see it. She wasn’t really sure what she was hoping for by coming here. Guidance maybe? Having Fate on her side would definitely be a huge help. Figuring that she’d already come all this way, she tried the only thing she could think to do.

With a shrug of her shoulders, Lup floats over to the center of the rubble and clasps her hands as best as she can in her phantasmal form. “Hey there Lady Istus. It’s cha’ girl Lup here. I’m, uh, kinda at a loss for what to do right now. I really need to save my family and this whole world and stuff. If you could be a dear and help me figure out how to stay dead so I can do that, it’d be super great.” 

The second she finishes her awkward rambling, a gruff voices calls out from behind her. “Alright, now who are you and what exactly are you doing here?”

Lup turns slowly to face the voice and finds a wand leveled at her. She’s never seen this man before, but she can make a pretty good guess at who he is based on the sheriff badge affixed to his shirt.

“You must be Sheriff Isaak, yeah? My name’s Lup. I was just hoping to pay my respects to Lady Istus.”

“Your name’s Lup huh? You sure about that? Because that girl who came into town not too long ago was named Lup too. That’d be a hell of a coincidence,” Issak said.

“That’s not a coincidence, that was me,” she tried to explain, but confusion flashed across Isaak’s face and she knew that wasn’t going to work.

“What the hell was that sound?” he asked gruffly. Lup sighed in defeat. 

“Nevermind. It doesn’t matter.” 

“I don’t suppose you came in with them did you? Because they’ve been causing a hell of a lot of trouble around here, disturbing the peace and getting in the way of the law,”

“Well I...wait. That hasn’t happened. Not this time anyways,” she said.

“No, not _this_ time,” Isaak agreed. Lup suddenly rushed forwards until she was directly in front of him. Isaak raised his wand higher with an obvious threat but she paid him no mind. He couldn’t hurt her anyways.

“You know about the resets,” Lup said. It was more of a statement than a question.

“And it seems that you do too. How come I’ve never seen you before?” he asks. Lup just ignores him.

“Please, I need to ask you to do something important. That girl you mentioned, Lup? When this place resets for the last time, I need you to kill her,” she says. Isaak looks appropriately alarmed. 

“I’m not going to do that,” he said.

“Please, I need you to do this. You’re the only one that can. She’ll be fine, she’s--I can’t explain it exactly but, she’s...like me. She’s undead and she’ll be ok if you kill her. Better even.” Lup knows she’s not explaining herself very well but she can’t help it. It’s frustrating trying to work around the static. 

“You know I’m not going to do that, right? I’m not just going believe some weird ghost at face value that someone needs to die and that I need to be the one to kill her,” Isaak said.

“Look, I know how this sounds and I know I don’t have any proof. But if she doesn’t die after the last reset, some really bad stuff might happen. Like, end of the world kind of bad stuff.”

“I don’t care what will happen. I’ve got enough blood on my hands. I won’t add to it,” he said.

“Please, you’re my only hope. You have to help me,” Lup pleaded.

“Stay out of my sight and stay out of trouble,” was all Isaak said before he turned and walked away. Lup just watched as he left. It was obvious that there wasn’t anything she could say to convince him. She needed to find another way. 

Before she could even think of what to do next the earthquakes started up again. She was out of time. She tried to reassure herself that this wasn’t her last chance at figuring something out. Knowing Magnus and Merle, the puzzle would probably kill them at least one more time before they solved it. It was that thought that kept her calm as she watched Refuge come down around her. 

The woman didn’t speak to them this time. It looked like she was struggling to catch her breath. If these resets took that much of a toll on her they may need to wrap this up quickly.

“Magnus. Merle. I need you to listen to me,” Lup said. “I don’t know what you’ll remember of this when we reset, but you need to kill me. The Red Robes aren’t evil. You’d know that if your memories weren’t being blocked. Just kill Lup. It will be ok I promise,” she said. The white space was beginning to fade.

“Lup? Is that really you?” Magnus asked.

“Yes, it’s me. And you need to do what I say,” is the last thing she gets out before they reset again.

 

Lup has tried everything that she can think of. She’s written herself notes, she’s searched Refuge for something to help her, she’s even tried getting a call through to Angus on her stone of farspeech. Nothing had worked. What Magnus and Merle had remembered of their conversation they hadn’t trusted so she couldn’t even use that to her advantage.

It’s been three resets since her conversation with Isaak. They’d died once more doing the locker puzzle and had just finished blowing themselves up for the third time in a row trying to get through an airlock. It was around 11:50 when they died so Lup is just staying put and waiting for the reset. It’s not like there’s anything more she can do anyways.

She wishes Taako was here. He was always the best at finding some clever solution to problems like this. This was the first time she’d really let herself think about him. It was dangerous to acknowledge what she’d lost, he was as much her anchor as Barry, but every second that she remembered him felt like a treasure now. It would be a waste not to think of him while she still could.

She hadn’t even gotten to mourn him. She was too busy convincing herself that he was coming back to ever consider for even a moment that he wouldn’t. He always came back. That’s what they did for each other. They stayed by each other’s side no matter what. What could have been so important to him that he broke their most sacred rule? 

It’s been over a decade since he disappeared now. She’d likely never find out where he went or what drove him to go there. Her other half was missing and all she had left of him were unanswered questions. She didn’t even have his memory. Not really, anyways. In a couple of minutes Refuge would reset and she’d go back to not knowing that such a fundamental part of her was missing and that she’d never get it back. That she’d never be whole again.

An ugly, broken sob tore it’s way out of Lup’s throat. For the rest of the time that she had left, Lup let herself cry the tears she’d never gotten to shed for her brother. It was the only thing left that she could do for him. Loss settled heavily in her chest and she choked on the feeling of it. Her form flickered with every sob and when they were sent to the white space again she barely noticed. She cried for him until the space faded around them and she could no longer remember him. It was so much less than he deserved.

 

The sensation of waking up again in Refuge was starting to become familiar to Lup. She had come to expect the static filling her mind and the tears spilling from her eyes. But something about this time was different. A desperate feeling of longing for something or someone she couldn’t name was clawing at her chest. She was sick with the feeling of it. Magnus and Merle rushed to her side as she fell to her knees. She buried her face in her hands and cried until she couldn’t anymore. When Magnus asked her what was wrong, she couldn’t give him an answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry I've gone so long without updating but this chapter did not want to exist. It also wasn't meant to be two parts but it was getting long and I wanted to update. I don't know why the 11th hour is causing me so much trouble but it be like that sometimes I guess.
> 
> Also, it's worth noting that Ren doesn't make the connection between Lup and Taako because Sizzle it Up ended before she could have seen it in this universe. I know this because I did the math in a panic hoping Ren wasn't about to make me rethink my plot. 
> 
> Thank you all for your patience and I will try to get the next chapter up soon


	21. The Eleventh Hour Part 2

Lup didn’t know how many more white spaces she was going to get sent to today, but she was starting to get sick of them. They’d finally managed to find the temporal chalice and pop the bubble surrounding June when they were sent to some weird version of the Davy Lamp to speak with her. Or rather, to speak with the chalice speaking through her. While they were there it made a proposal. If they listened to its offer and still resisted the chalice’s power, it would free June and come with them peacefully. The offer seemed simple enough so the three of them agreed. 

And now Lup is standing alone with June in yet another white space. But this space is different than the others. Around them, Lup can see her most recent memories being projected. She watches her life speed by in reverse. First she sees Refuge, and then they’re in Lucas’ lab, and then racing battlewagons in Goldcliff. June watches intently as they rewind through her life. Just after they pass her being hired to work at the university there’s a long period of static. June passes through it quickly but it still left her with questions. Why was such a huge part of her life missing from her memories? 

After the static she catches glimpses of her life on the road and being passed around from between her family until finally the memories come to a stop. And then she sees herself in her old office at the university. She’s sorting through a pile of paper on her desk. Her eyes light up as they land on an envelope and suddenly Lup knows what she’s watching. She watches herself excitedly tear the envelope open and begin to read the letter inside. The moment the smile drops from her face the scene freezes. 

“You really cared about him, didn’t you?” June asked. Lup takes a deep breath before nodding.

“Yeah. Yeah I did,” she says. June smiles at her sadly and moves to read the letter over her past self’s shoulder. Lup follows her and only manages to glance at the words “Love, Sildar” written at the bottom before she feels the tears welling up in her eyes. She quickly backs away before she can read anymore. 

“A little under a year ago you received a letter from Sildar Hallwinter inquiring about your work. After that, the two of you became fast friends and corresponded often. Then one day he wrote to you saying that he had found a lead in his research and that he wouldn’t be able to write for awhile. Though he promised that he would write to you again as soon as he was able, that was the last you’d ever heard from him.”

Lup glanced back at the letter but didn’t need to read it to know what it said. She’d long since memorized it. She remembered spending hours analyzing every last word when he’d been gone for too long. Trying to find if he’d left any clue as to where he might be going or if it was dangerous. Wondering if he signed it saying “love” instead of “from” as a way of saying goodbye. She’d never found the answer. 

“After he disappeared you were desperate to find him,” June continued. “As soon as it became clear he wasn’t coming back you left your job. You walked away from everything to go search for this man who you’d never even met face to face. You didn’t even know where to begin looking for him. You must have loved him a lot.”

“And what if I did?” Lup challenged, tired of being picked apart. 

“If you did, then I want to give you the chance to change things. With my power you could go back and convince him his mission was to dangerous, or even to take you with him. You could keep him safe and keep him in your life,” June said. 

While Lup is still processing June’s offer, the scene around them fades and then they’re back at the table with Merle and Magnus. 

“I need to lay out the rules for you, ‘cause I feel like that’s only fair. If you take the chalice, there are three rules that you have to follow. The first is that you cannot walk the path that you walked in this timeline. Specifically, there’s gonna be no joining the Bureau of Balance. ‘Cause the further you stay away from creating a paradox, the easier your new timeline is gonna be to maintain. The second rule is that you forfeit your place in this timeline completely. There is no comin’ back if you take the chalice and cross over. And the third rule is the hardest rule, and it’s the reason I’ve never successfully been able to change the past like this before. I’m gonna create a new timeline for you, but you have to sustain it. And all that entails is that every single thing that happens in this new world we create - good and bad - you have to want it to happen. Or else the timeline won’t hold and you’ll be lost,” June explains. And then she places the chalice in the middle of the table, and it’s time to decide.

The three of them glance at each other uncertainly. Each of them waiting for the others to speak first. 

“Well, I’m ready to give my answer, but I don’t…Listen, guys. I know what my offer was and I can only assume that yours was as powerful, so I’m not going to judge either one of you for whatever you say. Um… But my offer - the ability to go back and change that thing… It was everything I’ve wanted for a really long time… And it would mean… like, that I wouldn’t be there to help people who really needed help and save many, many, many lives - and I don’t care. Because it’s what I want… But it’s not what Julia would want. And I’m going to have to pass,” said Magnus.

“What about you Merle?” Lup asked.

“I’m not a big one for regrets. I figure you make your best choices with the information at hand, and you live with the consequences. That’s kind of a “Merle Pearl” to throw out to everybody. So I’m going to say… Thanks, but no thanks, little, strange girl,” Merle said.

“Lup?” June asked.

“I just...I have to believe that he’s still out there somewhere,” said Lup. “I hope that he’s ok and that I’ll find him one day but...I know how dangerous the relics can be, and I don’t want to take that risk. So my answer is no,” she said.

“So it kinda sounds like it’s a ‘no’ all around, cup lady,” said Magnus

“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t… disappointed. I… I’m- I’m sorry. I have to make one more offer.” June stood from the table and grabbed the chalice, and then they were no longer at the bar. Instead they found themselves back in Phandalin, moments before its destruction.

“This is the last offer I--I have to make. It’s the last thing I can think of that the three of you could fix. You free Kurtze, and Kurtze, in an act of vengeance, sets off a series of events that destroys Phandalin. You can stop this from happening if you just don’t let him out of the cage. It’s my last offer, and, will any of you reconsider?”

When they still don’t seem convinced she guides them inside the tavern. There they see Gundren, shrouded in flames and arguing with none other than Barry Bluejeans. Lup can feel her heart clench when she sees him in what she can only assume is recognition. Then they’re suddenly in the store room and they see civilians huddled together, hiding from Gundren. There they notice a halfling woman who they realize is Noelle. 

“Yeah, but at the same time, can you show us Rockport if we didn’t stop the train? Can you show us the world if we didn’t stop the pink tourmaline from taking over?” Magnus said. 

“This is the only offer I can make to you,” said June.

“Yeah, but like-- you’re showing us one thing we can change, and not the stuff that we did change,” he argued. 

“You know, guys. I know this is big, and I know there’s been a lot of death, and destruction, and other crap but… You know, we’ve had some laughs! We’ve had some good times! Crashing trains, and getting our arms chopped off and--y’know, poisonin’ a lot of folks, and… I’d hate to lose the good times that we had. I- I’m still not tempted. I’m still happy with the Merle life!”

“Yeah, I’m going to have to pass as well. Like Merle said, I- y’know. I spent a lot of time living my life in regret and I don’t do that anymore. We gotta keep moving forward towards good. Not looking back at the bad,” Magnus said. 

“I’m going to have to pass too. As much as I’d like to save these folks, we’ve done a lot of good since then that I’d hate to undo,” Lup said. 

June’s face falls as they all give their answers. “Okay. Well. I did my… best. And since you’re apparently so okay with living with the consequences of your actions then, I guess… Well, I guess I’ll leave you with this.”

The scene arounds them begins to play out in slow motion. They watch as a wall of flame consumes the tavern and everyone in it. And then the scene changes, and they watch as individual citizens of Phandalin are destroyed by the fire one by one. They watch countless lives being lost until finally the chalice takes them to the epicenter of the destruction. There they see Gundren, arm extended with pillars of flame pouring from the gauntlet. In one quick and horrible moment, the town around him is reduced to a perfect circle of black glass. 

And then, finally, they’re back in the mines. In front of them stands June who is young once again. The chalice falls from her grasp as she collapses onto her hands and knees. It hits the ground with a heavy thud and rolls away from her, landing perfectly at their feet. 

 

Just when Lup thinks that they’ll finally get to go home, of course the red robe has to show up. It wasn’t enough that they’d been blown up a dozen times, or relived their worst memories, or gotten chased through the mines by a purple worm. Of course he had to be here to top it all off. She levels him with a flat stare as he deactivates their stones of farspeech. 

“Did you retrieve the cup?” he asks in that weird raspy voice. 

“Yes,” Magnus replied.

“What did you change?” asked the red robe.

“Nothing. We didn’t do anything with it,” said Magnus.

“You didn't use the cup?”

“Nope, we all three said no,”

“I'm really proud of you. I thought there was a chance that maybe this would be the one to end your adventure.” The three of them exchanged confused glances. 

“Wait- you're proud of- wait hold on, you're the Red Robe, right? You're one of the bad guys,” said Magnus. 

“Who told you that?”

“Everybody,” muttered Merle. The red robe flickered just a little at that.

“I need to know - do you trust me?” he asked. 

“No! Hell no!” Merle and Magnus both shouted. The red robe flickered more violently and turned to face Lup, waiting for an answer. She didn’t know why, but she hesitated before shaking her head.

“No,” she said. 

As soon as she said no, the red robes form began to spasm and lose its composure. Bolts of energy began to whip off of it and just barely missed hitting them. And then he fell to his knees and began muttering to himself, but not in a voice that they recognized. Instead of that raspy tone he usually spoke to them in, it just sounded like a normal voice. 

“Lup, you don't trust me. None of you trust me. I can't do it anymore, Lup. I'm sorry,” he said, with defeat clear in his voice. Lup was even more confused now. Why was he talking to her specifically? And why did she feel her heart breaking for him?

The red robe slowly regains his composure and rises once again. 

“The next time we meet, I will need you to trust me completely and absolutely. Otherwise, all of this will have been for nothing. The Hunger is almost here. And when it arrives, this world will be lost,” he said. 

And then he was gone. 

“Any idea what that was about?” Lup asked. 

“Not a clue,” Magnus replied.

 

Lup sighed heavily as she walked through the front door of their dorm. She was more than ready to fall face first into bed and pass out. She sluggishly took of her shoes and cloak in the entryway, too tired to move any faster. Right as she turns to go to her room, she notices that she’s not alone. Sitting on the couch in the living room was a man she’d really hoped she’d never see again. As soon as they lock eyes he stands and walks over to her.

“Well, we need to talk, don’t we? ‘Cause you three...You’ve added quite a bit to your death count, haven’t you?” he said. Lup just rolled her eyes.

“Then let’s talk ghost rider.”


	22. Love, Sildar

Barry hated the waiting in between dying. Having his memories back was nice at least, but it would have been better if it wasn’t just a reminder of how lonely he was. There wasn’t much he could do until his body was reformed. He was too easy to track as a lich so he needed to lay low until he had a corporeal body again. Then he could go back to trying to track down relatives of Cyrus Rockseeker. It’d be another three months before his body was ready. With nothing better to do, he decided he’d spend the months engaging in his favorite pastime--stalking Lup.

Well, stalking wasn’t the right word. But there really isn’t a right word for obsessing over the love of your life from a distance because they can’t even remember your existence but you still miss them. So yeah, stalking. 

Barry rifled through the papers littering his desk until he found what he was looking for. Lup had published some research paper a while back and he finally had the opportunity to read it. This one hadn’t seemed to be about evocation so he was curious about what had caught Lup’s attention enough to write about it. He settled in began to read.

As he read the opening paragraphs, Barry noticed something was different about this paper than her other recent work. The subject was more abstract for one thing. In fact, the way she wrote about it seemed more like speculation than anything. Why would Lup publish something like this? It was just so different than anything she’d ever...oh. Wait.

_...Across Faerun people are filing missing persons cases for people that they can’t remember. They claim that despite having no memory of them, they can feel the loss of an unknown presence in their life, almost like a physical sensation. I myself have also experienced this strange sense of loss as well, which has led me to try to find the cause. If we think of our connections to people as existing in only intangible ways, to miss someone that you can’t remember should be impossible. Our connection to them would exist solely in our minds and our memories. However, if we think of our interpersonal relationships as forming tangible connections between us, if we think of losing those connections as a physical loss, it would make sense that we could still miss them…_

Bonds. She was talking about bonds. Barry couldn’t believe it. Lucretia must not have been too concerned with erasing the details of their research if Lup could even come to that conclusion. Still, it was incredible that she had. They hadn’t even been able to make that discovery on their home planet until the light of creation fell. Some subconscious part of her must still remember. 

Barry read the rest of her paper and was impressed with how much she’d been able to piece together. Especially with so little evidence. But even more than that he felt nostalgic. Trading their research back and forth and giving each other for feedback became something of a sacred ritual for them. Something they did in the early hours of the morning long after everyone else had gone to bed. A tradition formed long before they’d fallen for each other, and that they’d continued long after. It felt wrong to read her work without her here. She should be sitting here next to him, waiting impatiently for him to finish reading so he could tell her what he thought. He should turn to her and tell her that it was brilliant, as always. He should mention some detail he’d noticed and send them on an hour long tangent until Taako or Davenport found them and forced them to go to bed. He’d give anything to be able to do that with her again. 

And maybe he could. Not all of it, of course but...he knew where she was. It’d be easy enough to get in contact with her. He’d been trying his best not to. It would inevitably end in his own heartbreak and he was meant to be laying low anyways. But his resolve was low right now. He ached for the familiarity and comfort that came with talking to Lup. So, hoping he wouldn’t regret this, he picked up a pen and began to write. 

_Dear Professor Lup,_

_I’ve read your paper about the possibility of tangible connections resulting from interpersonal relationships. I think that this theory is brilliant. I was wondering if you planned keep researching the subject. You mentioned in your paper that many people across Faerun, including yourself, have been experiencing missing people that they couldn’t remember. I know that feeling. Every once in awhile I’m struck with the feeling that I’ve lost someone important to me but I can never name who it is. It’s like all evidence that they were in my life was erased but their impact on me is still there. Some days the feeling is so strong it’s all I can think about. Sorry, that was probably too personal. I just meant that I understand what you were talking about and would be interested to know if anything comes of your research. If anyone could figure out this weird phenomenon, I’m sure it would be you. Thank you for your time._

_From,_  
 ~~Ba~~  
Sildar Hallwinter 

And doing his best not to overthink this, he sealed the letter and sent it on its way to Neverwinter University. 

 

A few days later Barry had his reply. 

Dear Sildar, 

I appreciate your interest in my research and you taking the time to write to me. It’s an awful feeling isn’t it? I feel like I have to keep searching for the cause of it or it will never stop. And I just can’t go through my whole life feeling like a part of me is missing. So yes, to answer your question, I’m going to continue my research. And I appreciate you reaching out to me. The more people who come forward and say that they’ve experienced this, the more evidence that I have. Plus, it’s just nice knowing I’m not the only one. It’s interesting to talk to the others who have come forward to help me with this. When I ask them how they deal with it, most of them say they either spend all their time searching for evidence that they’re missing someone, or they try to fill the empty space in their life with more people. I wonder which you do. I obviously favor the searching for evidence method. If you’re ever around the university and you wanted to participate in my research, or even if you just wanted to talk, I’d be interested to meet you. If not that’s totally cool too. I would like to keep talking to you though. It’s nice to talk to someone who understands. 

From,   
Lup (You know, from the university?)

He laughed at the sign-off. At least in the little ways she hadn’t changed. It was so nice to hear from her again. He knew immediately that he wouldn’t be able to keep himself from writing to her again. Barry quickly wrote out his reply and began what would end up being a three month long correspondence.

_Dear Professor Lup,_

_Thank you for taking the time to respond. Sadly I don’t think we’ll be able to meet in person. I’m, well, I guess doing some research of my own in a sense. I can’t really go into the details but it keeps me on the move. But I’d be more than happy to keep writing to you. You’re right, it is nice to talk to someone who understands. And I’ve been on my own for awhile so really it’s just nice to talk to anybody at all. Wow, that was kind of a bummer. I promise that I am actually capable of being positive. Just needed to vent I guess._

_You asked me how I deal with missing the person I don’t remember and I guess that I do the same as you. Maybe there was a time when I’d try to surround myself with people to cope, but it never felt like enough. And there aren’t many chances for me to do that anyways. So I just keep searching for anything that could bring me closer to them. It’s definitely a slow process though. And it feels like everytime I take one step forwards I take two steps back. I just hope that when I finally do find them, it’ll be a happy reunion. It’s hard to picture that day ever coming, the hope that it will is one of the only things that keeps me going. Do you ever think about what finding your person would be like?_

_From,  
Sildar Hallwinter_

 

Dear Sildar,

First of all, you can just call me Lup. “Professor” just sounds to formal and...I don’t know what it is about you, but it just feels like we’re already close. Like, even though we’ve only had a few exchanges I feel like I can really talk to you. Is that weird? Feel free to tell me if it is. I’m very curious about this secret research mission of yours. Does it have to do with finding your person? You’ve gotta give me a hint. You can’t just say stuff like that and leave me wondering. 

I do think about what our reunion would be like. I think about it all the time, really. It’s hard to imagine since I don’t even know who I’d be reuniting with, but I guess I always picture finally feeling complete. Like, maybe I don’t know what I’m missing now, but when I do and I have it back I won’t know how I lived without it. It’s hard to explain, it’s kind of an abstract feeling. I think I dream about it sometimes. I wake up feeling like I saw the person in my dreams and that I remembered them, but the memory feels fuzzy. I even tried to keep a dream journal for awhile but nothing came of it. 

Well whatever you mystery mission is, I’m wishing you good luck. And don’t stay by yourself too long. It’s not good for you. If you ever get too lonely you know where to find me. 

From,  
Lup

 

Soon they went from talking about Lup’s research to talking about anything and everything. It was strange. It was a far cry from the closeness that they used to have. But the similarities were comforting nonetheless.

_Dear Lup,_

_There is no amount of gold I wouldn’t pay to not have to camp out in caves anymore. It’s somehow even less fun than it sounds. I can barely even go out into actual civilization because I’m supposed to be laying low for my “mission.” You’re the only thing keeping me sane at this point. If my next letter is nothing but nonsense, assume that I’ve finally lost it._

_From,  
Sildar_

 

Dear Sildar,

I swear my students are trying to kill me. Today I almost lost my eyebrows to an evocation spell gone wrong. Again. I can only imagine what horrors finals week has in store for me. Sleep deprivation and stress is not a good combination with dangerous and explosive magic. I’ll probably be bald by the time I get through this term. Wish me and my perfect hair luck. We’re going to need it. 

 

_Dear Lup,_

_I had another run in with that weird reaper guy I told you about. His fake accent hasn’t gotten any better since the last time either. I almost feel bad fighting him. He’s just trying to do his job after all. And he seems like a pretty nice guy. Well, except for the whole trying to kill me part. I’m just glad he didn’t find where I’ve been camping. I really don’t wanna deal with trying to move everything out of there. I think he’s been putting up less of a fight recently. He seems more resigned every time I see him. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll just give up. That’s probably wishful thinking though._

_From,  
Sildar_

 

Dear Sildar,

Do you think we’ll ever meet in person? I’d just--I’d really like to meet you if that’s something you’d be interested in too. Even though we haven’t been talking long, you’ve become really important to me. You’re probably my best friend if I’m being honest. If that’s not something you’re not interested in though I’ll respect that. I just figured I’d ask.

From,  
Lup

 

_Dear Lup,_

_As much as it hurts me to say, I don’t think that meeting in person would be possible. The work that I’m doing here has to be my priority right now. I really do want to meet you though, believe me. Maybe...maybe once this is all over we could talk about meeting. It’s just not a good time. I’m sorry. But for what it’s worth, you’re my best friend too._

_From,  
Sildar_

 

_Dear Lup,_

_Something has come up in my work. I’ve got to go follow a lead while I still can. I’m really sorry but I won’t be able to talk for awhile. I don’t know how long it will take, but I’ll write to you again as soon as I’m able. I hope you can forgive me for the sudden disappearance. I’ll do my best to wrap this up quickly. Maybe I’ll even walk away from this with a good story to tell you. I’ll miss you terribly while I’m away. I have to go but I’ll talk to you soon._

_Love,  
Sildar_

That was the last letter Lup ever received from him.


	23. Lunar Interlude: Aftermath

Julia froze when she heard a knock at her door. She was currently staying at an inn in Rockport, stopped on her way to visit Tony and figure out their next move in finding Kalen. She’d very carefully been covering her tracks and not lingering in one place for too long. No one should know where she was. So who would be knocking on her door?

Cautiously, Julia grabbed her axe and moved towards the door. She cracked the door open just enough to see who was on the other side and sighed in relief when she saw her husband. Usually he would give her a heads up that he was coming so he didn’t scare her, but she could tell with only a glance that something was wrong. It must have slipped his mind. 

Magnus greeted her with a weak smile and Julia wordlessly opened the door the rest of the way, dropping her axe and holding her arms out for a hug. Magnus collapsed against her instantly. His tight grip on her made her all the more worried. Something must have happened on their last mission. She placed a gentle kiss on the top of his head when she felt tears start to soak through her shirt. 

“Wanna sit and talk about it?” she suggested. When Magnus nodded his head she carefully began to pull him towards her bed. She settled back against the headboard and let Magnus curl himself around her. His arms wrapped themselves securely around her middle and his face was buried in the crook of her neck. His breath was beginning to hitch.

“What happened Mags?” she asked. When he didn’t answer immediately she began to run her fingers through his hair and waited patiently. 

“I could have saved them,” Magnus finally choked out. 

“Saved who?” she asked.

“Everyone. Raven’s Roost. Steven. I’m so sorry Jules. I couldn’t do it. I’m sorry,” he rambled. 

“Shh Mags, I need you to calm down. You couldn’t have saved them sweetheart. There’s nothing we could have done. I hate it too but it’s not your fault.” Magnus took a deep breath in. 

“That’s not what I meant,” he said. “The last relic we got, the temporal chalice, it offered me the chance to change what happened to Raven’s Roost...and I gave it up.” He was sitting up now, watching her face carefully for her reaction. Julia felt her heart breaking for him. 

“Magnus, I’m so sorry that you had to make that choice. But those relics are dangerous. I’m sure it was a hard call to make, but I think that you made the right decision,” she said. 

“It doesn’t feel that way,” Magnus said.

“No, I’m sure it doesn’t. And I wish that we could change what happened too. But as much as I hate to say it, that doesn’t mean that we should. We don’t know how it would have affected things. And we’ve done a lot of good since then. It’d be a shame to undo all of that as well.” Magnus settled back against her shoulder. He seemed to be calming down but the tears hadn’t stopped quite yet. 

“I know, you’re right. That’s why I couldn’t do it. It still hurts though,” he said.

“Yeah, it still hurts,” she agreed with a heavy sigh. “We’re gonna get it though. I’m gonna be here for you, and you’re gonna be here for me, and we’re gonna be ok, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Magnus responded.

“Good. Now let’s get you some sleep. You look absolutely exhausted. You can tell me about the rest of the mission in the morning.”

Magnus let Julia adjust them until the were both tucked snugly under the covers, with Magnus laying heavily across her. He felt her thumb brush softly over his jaw before she tilted his face up towards her, giving him one last reassuring kiss. 

“Goodnight Mags. Love you,” she whispered.

“Love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: frantically writes a chapter when my keyboard decides to function


	24. Conflict of Interest

Kravitz was just minding his own business finishing up his paperwork when a huge stack of files materialized on his desk. He allowed himself a moment of shock and frustration before tentatively opening one, scanning the page for what could have caused such an influx in death crimes in the past few minutes. A stack of files just appearing like this was unheard of. And when he read the cause it just got worse. A drow woman by the name of Ren with thousands of deaths racked up over the past decade, and he was only just now hearing about it. The next few files told the same story. An entire town’s worth of bounties, all with the same number of deaths. It was impossible.

Kravitz glanced suspiciously at his book of bounties. He’d recently dealt with another set of impossible bounties. He sincerely hoped the two were unrelated. Still, he looked up their names just to be sure. Magnus now had 30 deaths, Merle was now at 68, And Lup was now at 23. 

11 times. They’d each died 11 more times. Barely any time had passed since he explicitly told them they wouldn’t be pardoned again. Did they really care that little about their own mortality? Kravitz scrubbed his hands across his face in irritation. This was going to be a mess to clean up. And he’d need to talk to the reclaimers again, which he was not looking forward to.

As he pulled his hands back away from his face something else caught his eye. In his book of bounties, right next to Lup’s page, there was a record that he’d never noticed before. Taako: 8 total deaths. One visit to the astral plane. He’d gone to the Eternal Stockade. And, just like the others, he’d been pardoned. 

That couldn’t be right. Taako couldn’t have any connection to the other three. But...he really did look almost identical to Lup. On Candlenights, when Kravitz has asked him if there was any relation between them, had Taako lied to him? Had he been hiding this from him the whole time? Even if he was pardoned, the fact that he had died so many times and was actually brought into the Stockade, that was a big deal. And as a reaper, that wasn’t something he was sure that he could forgive. Especially not if Taako had been lying to him about it. 

He could feel himself starting to panic. He had no idea what to do about this. There was no protocol for finding out that the first person you let yourself care about in centuries might completely oppose everything that you stand for. If he was right about this...he would probably have to end things with Taako. Kravitz wasn’t sure that he was strong enough to do that. 

He took a deep breath and thought through his next course of action. At the moment he had no idea what to do about Taako, so that would have to wait. What he knew he could do was go work on dealing with this Refuge mess. So, he materialized his scythe and cut a portal into the reclaimers dorm, waiting for them to arrive.

 

Lup was wholly unimpressed by his appearance in their living room, which was unfortunate but not surprising. She just dropped herself down onto the couch and gestured for him to join her. Kravitz sat on the opposite end and tried to focus enough to get through this.

“So, you and the other two have now died 11 more times. And all of a sudden thousands of deaths have now registered for all of the citizens of Refuge. Would you mind explaining to me what happened?” he asked. Lup groaned dramatically and flopped her head back against the couch. 

“Look, Krav. It’s kinda, like, a super long story. And I’m very, very tired. Can’t you do cha girl a favor and postpone this conversation?” Lup asked. 

“I’m afraid not,” he said flatly. The truth was that he probably could, but he wasn’t willing to give up the distraction. 

“Fine,” Lup huffed. “Well it started when we got assigned to recover a relic called the temporal chalice…”

Kravitz tried to pay attention to Lup’s explanation. He really did. But his mind kept wandering back to what he’d discovered earlier. He had to keep asking Lup to repeat herself when he got distracted. Eventually Lup called him out on it.

“Hey, uh, are you doing ok ghost rider? Cause it doesn’t seem like you’re paying much attention to what I’m saying. And I know that death crime is kinda like, your whole thing.”

“I’m fine, I just--I found out something recently about someone I care about, and I’m not sure what to do about it,” he said. Lup gave him a once over like she could deduce all of his secrets with just a glance.

“Is this about your boyfriend?” she asked. Well, shit. 

“That’s--it’s not--that’s none of your business,” he finally managed. Lup just gave him a smirk.

“So it is then?” she said, more statement than question.

“Look, I don’t have to talk about this with you,” Kravitz said.

“Except that you kind of do. Because your boyfriend is Angus’ dad. So things that affect you two, affect him as well. And things that affect my boy are definitely my business,” Lup concluded. 

“Dammit,” Kravitz muttered. He hadn’t even thought about how this would affect Angus. This was all just getting more complicated.

“So, what’s going on? Trouble in paradise?” Lup prodded.

“I’m not really sure yet. Maybe nothing. But maybe a lot. I just found Taako’s name on my list of bounties,” Kravitz said. 

“Wait, seriously?” Lup asked. Kravitz nodded.

“It says that he’s been pardoned. But he’s also died 8 times and has been committed to the Eternal Stockade once. It’s exactly the same situation as the three of you. Maybe even worse because he’s actually been arrested. And I just...not only has he gone against everything I try to uphold, but he’s also been keeping it from me. So I don’t know if I can be with him, or if I should even trust him,” he explained. He wasn’t sure why he was telling Lup all of this, but it felt good to vent at least. 

“Damn, Krav. That’s a hell of a situation you’ve got going,” Lup said. Kravitz nodded his agreement.

“It sounds like maybe you could use a break to think this all over,” she suggested. 

“I’m not just going to forget about all of your death crimes because of this,” Kravitz said.

“I’m not trying to make you forget. I’m just saying that I’m tired and you’ve got a lot going on so maybe we should finish this conversation another time.” 

“Yeah, I think you might be right,” Kravitz said after a moment. “But we are going to finish this conversation.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Lup agreed, already heading towards her room. “Well, for what it’s worth, I hope you work everything out with your boy. Don’t be too hard on him. Not all of us death criminals are so bad, you know.”

“I beg to differ,” Kravitz said flatly. “But thank you. Goodnight, Lup.”

“Goodnight!” She called from the hall. And then she was gone.

Not knowing where else to go, Kravitz opened a portal back to his office and resigned himself to doing paperwork for the rest of the night. He couldn’t very well go home now. And, oh boy, he’d really set himself up for failure, huh? Seeing Taako’s house as home. If he really did lose Taako, it was going to break him. He really wasn’t looking forward to the fallout. 

And speak of the devil. Kravitz’s wandering mind was brought back to the present when his stone of farspeech started to glow. Taako was trying to get ahold of him. Kravitz watched the light pulsing for a moment before finally deciding to answer.

“Hello Taako,” he greeted, voice small. He could picture Taako’s ears flicking with concern so clearly in his mind. He tried not to think about it. 

“Uh, hey babe. Are you ok?” Taako asked. 

“Yeah, I’m, uh, I’m fine,” he said. And if Taako wasn’t worried before, he almost certainly was now. 

“Cool cool cool. Um, I was just checking if you were gonna come home tonight. It’s getting pretty late,” Taako said. He could hear the hesitation in his voice. Like he knew something was wrong but wasn’t sure if he should pry. 

“Actually, I’m gonna stay in the astral plane for the night. I’ve got a lot of work to catch up on,” said Kravitz. 

“Oh, alright. Well, maybe I’ll see you tomorrow then?” Taako said.

“Yeah, maybe. Goodnight Taako.”

“Goodnight Krav. Love you,” Taako tried to tell him, but Kravitz had already hung up.


	25. Criminal Record

Kravitz stayed hidden away in his office until he ran out of excuses to be there. It was well into the morning now, though it was nearly impossible to tell in the astral plane. Taako hadn’t tried to call him again. Kravitz knew that he must be worried. Taako had a bad habit of distancing himself whenever something was wrong. Otherwise he would have called as soon as he woke up. Despite his suspicions, he still felt guilty for worrying him. He couldn’t just stop caring about Taako. It would make this so much easier if he could. 

He knew that he was going to have to face this eventually. At this point he’d been here for so long that he’d run out of ways to stall. There were only so many times he could reorganize his desk. So, despite the dread that took hold of him as soon as he stood, he forced himself to open a portal to Taako’s doorstep and knock on the door. 

Taako opened the door with an unsure smile on his face. “Hey there, Krav,” he greeted. “You know you don’t have to knock.”

“Sorry. I just...I didn’t call ahead so…” Kravitz said vaguely. The truth was that he felt weird about just walking into Taako’s house now. Taako looked like he knew there was more to the story, but he let it go. Instead he just motioned him inside and returned to the nest of blankets and books he’d accumulated on the couch. He raised an eyebrow at the distance Kravitz put between them when he joined him. 

“So, you wanna tell me what’s been up with you? Cause you’ve been acting weird since last night,” Taako asked. At a glance he looked apathetic as ever. But Kravitz knew that was intentional. He was trying not to show it, but Taako was watching him carefully. Looking for any hint of what might be going on. 

“Last night while I was working, all of a sudden a huge influx of violations appeared on our record from a town called Refuge. As well as those three that Angus is friends with from the Bureau. So I had to spend some time dealing with that,” Kravitz said.

“Ok. But it kinda seems like there’s more to it than that,” Taako said. 

“Yes, well. While I was going through those files I found out something and I didn’t know what to do about it,” he said. 

“You wanna tell me what that something is?” Taako asked. Kravitz couldn’t find the words to answer. Instead, he summoned his book of bounties. He wordlessly turned to the right page and handed the book to Taako. He stared intently down at his lap while Taako processed what he was looking at.

“Babe--” Taako began, but Kravitz cut him off.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked. 

“Kravitz, I couldn’t have told you anything. I don’t know what this is talking about. This has got to be a mistake. I haven’t died 8 times!” Taako said.

“Taako please don’t lie to me. The book of bounties is never wrong. I know that you’ve died 8 times.”

“Maybe you know that, but I sure don’t!” Taako argued. “How would that even have happened? I’ve spent my whole life avoiding anything even mildly life threatening. And I certainly don’t know a thing about necromancy. Krav, you’ve got to believe me,” he pleaded. 

“I don’t know what to believe Taako! I don’t want to believe that you would do this, but the alternative would be to doubt the word of my goddess,” Kravitz said. 

“Well then maybe you should doubt her! Because she’s deffo wrong about this,” Taako said. 

“How could you ask that of me?” Kravitz asked, hurt clear in his voice. Taako’s defensive posture dropped immediately with guilt. 

“I’m sorry Krav, I shouldn’t have said that. I just--I don’t know how to fix this. I really haven’t died all those times. I wouldn’t lie to you about that. You’ve gotta believe me,” he said.

“The book says you’ve been sentenced to the Eternal Stockade once. Do you know anything about that?” Kravitz asked, hoping for any kind of answers he could get at this point. 

Taako actually paused at that. The silence was heavy as he thought the question over.

“Taako?”

“There was this one thing...but I thought it was a dream…” Taako mumbled, still lost in thought. 

“What happened?” Kravitz asked. 

“I don’t really remember most of it. I remember talking to this, like, super intense woman. Then I think I was in a jail for a little bit. And I think maybe I met the Raven Queen? I don’t remember if I talked to her or anything though. I think maybe someone else had been there too, but I don’t remember who. That’s all I’ve got,” he said.

“So it’s true then?” Kravitz asked quietly. 

“I don’t know Krav. It might not have even happened. I really did think it was a dream until you mentioned it. Besides, even if it is true, she let me go. I’m not in ghost jail and your book says that I got pardoned. It’s not like you have a bounty out on me, right?”

“Maybe everything is fine legally speaking, but it’s not fine for me. I don’t know that I can be with someone who would go against the law that it is my purpose to uphold. And it’s more than just my job. Those are my beliefs, Taako. I can’t just ignore such blatant disrespect to my faith.”

“What are you saying Krav?” Taako asked. 

“I’m saying...I don’t know. I think that I need to speak with the Raven Queen. And I need to think about this more. Until then...I really don’t know,” he said.

“Kravitz, please don’t do this,” Taako begged. 

“I’m sorry. Just give me some time. Goodbye Taako.” And before Taako could respond, Kravitz retreated back to the astral plane. 

 

Kravitz didn’t return to his office. Instead, he found himself outside of the Raven Queen’s chambers, waiting for permission to enter. He didn’t even need to announce his presence before the doors swung open for him. The Raven Queen always knew when he needed her, and she always welcomed him. 

As Kravitz approached her throne, he felt more than saw the Raven Queen looking at him with fondness. Her face was as incomprehensible as ever. Though after all his years in her service it filled him with peace rather than dread. Kravitz bowed his head and kneeled before her, only glancing up when he felt a hand brush his cheek. 

“Rise my child. Tell me what’s troubling you,” she said. Kravitz obediently rose to his feet.

“My queen,” he said. “It has recently come to my attention that someone I have grown to care about is guilty of breaking the laws of life and death. Apparently he’s even been brought in for his crimes. His record shows that he’s been pardoned, but I don’t know if I can forgive him.”

“This is about your boyfriend, correct?” she asked. 

“Um, yeah, that’s--that’s correct,” Kravitz said. 

“Ah, yes. I remember Taako. He was certainly an interesting one. If he had even an ounce of respect for the concept of mortality I might have even liked him,” she said. 

“So it’s true then? He was arrested?” Kravitz asked.

“Yes, it’s true. He was brought in by a reaper by the name of Isabelle about a decade ago. His was a strange case. He argued that, despite all his deaths, he had never willingly been resurrected, and thus shouldn’t be thrown in the Stockade,” she explained. The flaw in that argument was glaringly obvious to a reaper as old as he was. 

“But he was still meant to die,” he pointed out. “Even if he wasn’t sent to the Stockade, he still should have stayed in the astral plane.”

“And that is exactly what I told him,” said the Raven Queen. 

“So what happened? Obviously he isn’t still here,” Kravitz asked. The Raven Queen sighed. 

“As I was about to sentence him to the sea of souls we were...interrupted. The goddess of fate herself came to argue on Taako’s behalf,” she explained irritably. 

“Istus? Why would she do that?” Kravitz asked. 

“I’m still not entirely sure. Istus is vague at the best of times. She simply said that Taako had an important role to play in the fate of the universe and that I was forbidden from interfering with that. So I let him go.”

“So if it weren’t for Istus, Taako wouldn’t have been pardoned?” Kravitz asked. 

“That’s correct.” The Raven Queen tilted her head in a way that Kravitz knew meant that she was studying him. “You look troubled, Kravitz.”

“I just--I really hoped I’d know what to do when I found out what happened,” Kravitz confessed. 

“Do you need to do anything?” she asked. 

“I...I don’t know. It just seems wrong to be with him given the circumstances.”

“Kravitz, I know that you are dedicated to your role as a reaper. And, of course, your dedication is important to me. But your happiness is also important to me. No matter the strange circumstances, Taako has been pardoned. If he is what makes you happy, then I have no objections to that,” the Raven Queen said. 

“Thank you my queen. I’ll try to keep that in mind. I just don’t know if I can be happy with someone who goes against my beliefs,” said Kravitz.

“Well that is a decision that I can’t help you to make. But I can advise you to take all the time that you need to make it. And don’t overwork yourself Kravitz. I know how you can get about these things,” she said. Kravitz smiled at her concern. 

“I’ll keep that advise in mind,” Kravitz said, which was notably not a promise. The Raven Queen chuckled and shook her head, but didn’t call him out on it. 

“Well I wish you luck Kravitz. You know that you are always welcome here if you need any further help.”

“Thank you my queen. Your kindness means a lot to me.” With one last bow of his head, Kravitz turned to leave the Raven Queen’s chambers, somehow feeling both reassured and completely at a loss.


	26. And Then There Were Two

“I’m home!” Angus called out as he let himself in the front door. The house seemed strangely empty. It was the weekend so he had expected to hear his dad clattering around in the kitchen or even Kravitz humming mindlessly as he went through his paperwork. But only silence greeted him as he took off his shoes in the entryway. Angus dropped his bag to the ground and slowly walked into the living room, looking for any signs of life. Blankets and plates were piled around the couch where someone had obviously been spending a lot of time. When he glanced into the kitchen he noted that it was in a state of disarray as well. Various desserts lined the counters and what looked like every dish they owned was piled high in the sink. Something was wrong. His dad never left his kitchen like this. 

Angus had no idea what could have happened in the two days he spent away at the B.O.B, but it looked like it had been bad. He left the kitchen and started in the direction of his dad’s room. His door was closed when he got there, which was strange as well. His dad never shut him out. As quietly as he could, Angus cracked open the door and peered inside. 

He found his dad in bed, curled up under a pile of blankets and facing away from him. He couldn’t see his face, but if the occasional sniffling was any clue, it sounded like he had been crying. Caleb was pressed up against his back and purring comfortingly. Angus could see his ear flick back when he opened the door the rest of the way, but he didn’t acknowledge him. He just stared resolutely at the wall as Angus moved to sit on the other side of the bed. 

“...Are you ok?” Angus asked. Taako pulled the blankets tighter around himself. 

“‘Course I’m ok bubbeleh. Don’t know why you’d even ask,” was his weak attempt at nonchalance. 

“You know, I don’t have to be a detective to know that you’re lying,” Angus said. Taako huffed a laugh and finally turned to face him. His hair was a mess and his face was splotchy and red from crying. Sometimes he’d try to cast a glamor on himself to keep Angus from seeing him like this, but today it seemed there was no point. 

“You’re too smart for your own good, you know that?” Taako asked. When Angus nodded his head Taako just snorted and shoved at his shoulder. Angus laughed, but the serious look quickly returned to his face. 

“Seriously though, what’s going on?” Angus asked. Taako wouldn’t meet his eye. 

“It’s--it’s nothing kiddo. Don’t even worry about it. I’d much rather talk about your trip to the ‘ol moonbase. How’d that go? They still treatin you good up there?” Taako rambled. Angus narrowed his eyes at him.

“Why are you hiding things from me?” he asked. 

“I’m not,” Taako tried. Angus leveled him with a flat look. 

“Fine. I just--I don’t know how to tell you I guess,” he admitted. “Just give me a sec.” Taako pulled himself up so that he was sitting against the headboard, picking up Caleb and dropping him in Angus’ lap to make room. Once he was settled he took a deep breath to steady himself.

“Ok so…Kravitz came by earlier this morning. And he started saying all this stuff about how his book of bounties said I’d died a bunch of times and that I was pardoned. I didn’t have any idea what he was talking about, but I don’t think he believed me. So we kind of got in a fight and...I don’t know if he’s coming back,” Taako explained. 

“What? He can’t just leave,” Angus protested.

“Ango--”

“No, he can’t just--he’s family now. He has to come back!”

“Angus, listen to me,” Taako said sternly. Angus looked at him with tears welling in his eyes. Taako sighed and brushed a gentle hand across his cheek. “I know it sucks. Like, it really fucking sucks. But if Kravitz wants to leave, then that’s his decision to make.”

“But it’s not fair. You didn’t do anything wrong,” Angus said. 

“Yeah, well, sometimes people just leave and there’s nothing fair about it. I had a lot of people leave my life when I was growing up, and I really didn’t want you to have to go through that. But since I kinda goofed that one up…”

“This isn’t your fault,” Angus interjected.

“I brought someone into your life that I thought I could trust to stay and I was wrong. That one’s on me. But the point is that, whether or not he comes back, we’re gonna be here for each other and we’re gonna be ok. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Angus agreed. 

“Good.” Taako pulled Angus into a tight hug and Angus clung to him in return. 

“Love you kiddo.”

“Love you too,” Angus mumbled into his shirt. 

“Wanna go eat a bunch of the desert that’s overrunning our kitchen and pretend not to feel sorry for ourselves?” Taako asked.

“Absolutely.” 

 

 

For all his talk about getting through this together, his dad had been in a pretty bad state since Kravitz left. He barely even left his room most days. Angus only really ever saw him during mealtimes, and he was surprised to even see him then. He was starting to worry about him. He’d thought that if he gave him time he’d start to get better. But it’s been a week and so far there was no end to this in sight. 

Angus didn’t know what to do. There wasn’t anything he could do to fix this. He’d tried calling Kravitz only to receive no response. And he couldn’t very well track down a being that lived on a different plane--though that didn’t mean he wasn’t trying. All he could really do was try to make things easier for his dad while he waited this out. So that’s what he did. He dedicated himself to making sure that he was eating and drinking, keeping the house cleaned up, and anything else he could think of to make himself useful. He hadn’t even been going up to the moonbase in case he was needed. 

It was all getting to be too much though. He was just a little boy, after all. And he’d already had plenty of responsibilities of his own. Keeping his household together while his dad fell apart was getting to be too much. Besides, it wasn’t as if this situation was easy for him either. Kravitz had been in their lives for nearly two years now. In that time he’d become something of a father figure to him. Angus had really thought that Kravitz would be in their lives for good. To lose one of the only two people he’d ever thought of as family so suddenly--it was really taking its toll on him. He was careful not to let his dad see that though. He didn’t want to give him more to be sad about. 

Which is why, after long days of acting too grown up for too long, Angus locked himself in his room and let himself cry. All the feelings of loss and fear he’d try to ignore during the day resurfaced with vengeance as the door closed behind him. It was the only time he’d let himself admit that this was all too much for him. 

He’d been doing this for days. He was very careful to wait until his dad had gone to bed so that he wouldn’t be caught. Considering he rarely got up anymore anyways, he didn’t think that he had much to worry about. But tonight, as he sat with his back to the door and his face in his hands, he was very surprised to hear a quiet knock at his door. 

He ignored it at first. Scrubbing furiously at his eyes, he tried to steady his hitching breath and will him to leave. He couldn’t let him see him like this. 

For one very long moment, everything was quiet. Angus held as still as possible and listened for footsteps down the hall. Instead he heard another knock at the door. 

“Angus,” Taako called, voice scratchy with disuse. Angus hesitated a second longer before finally giving in and rising to his feet. He knew there was no avoiding this now. 

He opened the door just enough to be seen, keeping his gaze firmly on the ground in one last attempt to hide. If his dad’s wince was anything to go by, it wasn’t very successful.

“Fuck, kid,” was all he heard before he was pulled into comforting arms. Angus went willingly, clutching tightly as if to keep him from leaving too. Then suddenly everything was too much again. He began sobbing in earnest now, with quick hot tears pouring down his face. A hand rubbed circles into his back as he tried to regain control of his breathing. After a few minutes he’d managed to cry himself out, though his breath still came in short, quick gasps. 

“I’m sorry Angus,” Taako murmured into his hair. “I haven’t been much of a parent to you these past few days, huh?”

Angus pulled away just enough to look at him. The tiredness that had been haunting his eyes was still there, but there was something else too. Guilt, he realized. 

“I know it’s been hard for you,” Angus said. 

“Don’t make excuses for me, kid,” Taako said. “I know that I fucked up. I’ve been too busy feeling sorry for myself to be there for you. And I know that this has been hard for you too. Probably even harder than it has been for me.” Angus could feel himself tearing up again but he didn’t have it in him to cry anymore.

“I’m fine,” Angus lied, staring resolutely at the ground.

“That’s horseshit, pumpkin, and we both know it,” Taako said. Angus just gave him a weak shrug. 

“Wanna talk about it?” he asked. Another shrug.

“Do you not wanna talk about it because you don’t want to hurt my feelings?” This time Angus didn’t respond. 

“It’s not your job to protect me Angus,” Taako said. 

“I just don’t want to make it worse,” Angus mumbled.

“Angus, the only thing that could make this worse is knowing that you were hurting and that I didn’t do anything about it,” Taako said. Angus thought this over for a moment.

“I really miss him,” Angus confessed. “And I know you guys weren’t--weren’t married or anything but he was…”

“Yeah. I know he was,” Taako agreed. 

“I feel like I should be mad at him, but I’m just...sad I guess. And it’s been scary watching how it affected you.” Angus looked guilt as soon as he admitted that. 

“I’m really sorry Angus. I know I put you through a lot this week. We were supposed to be looking out for each other and I didn’t hold up my end of the deal. That’s on me.”

“It’s ok,” said Angus. 

“It really isn’t,” Taako said. “Look, I’m gonna try to be better. And in return I’m gonna need you to tell me when stuff is wrong, ok?”

“Ok,” Angus agreed. 

“Good. Now come here,” Taako said, holding out his arms. Angus returned the hug immediately, smiling at the kiss that was pressed into his hair. 

“Now go to bed. It’s way past your bedtime kid, geez.” 

“Fine, I’m going,” Angus laughed. Taako leaned against the doorway and waited for Angus to crawl into bed before leaving. 

“Goodnight, kid.”

“Goodnight, dad.”


	27. Secret Family

“Angus. We have to get out of this house. I’m actually going insane,” Taako declared from his side of the couch.

“Agreed,” said Angus. It was day nine of Kravitz being gone and in that time they’d done little but mope around the house. Sure it still hurt, but they couldn’t just sit and be miserable forever. 

“What’s something that we could go do?” Taako asked. 

“I don’t know…” said Angus. “Wait. I might actually have an idea. I don’t know if we should really be doing it though.”

“Pumpkin, if it gets us out of here it’s a fuckin excellent idea. Let’s do it, whatever it is.”

 

“You know, when I said we should leave the house, the moon wasn’t the destination I had in mind,” Taako said mildly.

“Well we’re not gonna be here long anyways,” Angus responded. 

“Riiiight. And who exactly are we spying on again?” Taako asked, glancing around at the empty hangar. Angus did a quick scan of the room as well and suddenly his eyes widened. 

“Him. Now shhh,” he hissed as he pulled Taako further behind a glass cannonball. Taako managed to get just a glimpse at their target, an old and crunchy looking dwarf walking purposely towards the room’s only other occupant. He heard him have a quick conversation with the man he’d been informed was named Avi and then the sound of machinery starting up. The two of them waited and listened to the sounds of a cannonball being launched until the room fell silent once more. 

“Now what?” Taako whispered. 

“Now we follow him,” Angus said. Taako trailed after him as he made his way towards Avi.

“Hello, sir!” Angus greeted once they’d been spotted. Avi looked surprised to see them, but happy nonetheless. 

“Hey there Ango! Who’s your friend?” he asked. 

“Oh, this is my dad, Taako. Dad this is my friend Avi,” Angus said.

“Hail and well met,” Taako replied with disinterest. 

“Nice to meet you Ango’s dad. Is there anything I can do for you both?” Avi asked. 

“Well, I was hoping you could send us to the same location that you just sent Merle,” Angus said in his most innocent voice.

“Uh huh. And is there any reason that you’re trying to follow Merle?” Avi asked suspiciously. 

“He’s just been acting strange lately is all. I want to know what’s been going on with him,” said Angus. 

“Sorry kid, but Merle asked me not to share where he’s been going with anyone. Actually, he specifically said not to share them with you,” said Avi. Angus looked discouraged for just a moment. 

“But the Director gave me permission to do this. She’s noticed that he’s been acting different too,” Angus lied. Taako hid a proud smirk behind his hand. He’d taught his boy well. 

“Really? And if I went and asked the Director right now she would tell me she approved this mission?” Avi asked, eyes narrowed. 

“Yep!” Angus bluffed. Taako’s eyes darted back and forth between the two of them, watching as Avi considered this. 

“Well alright then. But if Merle gets mad, then that’s on you,” Avi said. 

“Alright, thanks Avi!” said Angus who immediately took off towards a cannon before Avi could change his mind. 

“No problem, kid. Have a nice trip,” said Avi. And with that, the two of them were loaded up and sent hurtling towards the earth below. Taako had to take a minute to fight the nausea off before turning and excitedly ruffling his son’s hair. 

“What was that for?” Angus laughed. 

“That was some good lying back their Ango. I raised you right after all,” he said. 

“I think a lot of people would argue with your measurement of good parenting but thank you,” Angus said. 

“I don’t give a shit about how other people think parenting should be done,” Taako said dismissively. 

“Obviously,” Angus teased, which earned him a light smack on the arm. 

Angus expertely landed their cannon in a field just outside the city of Neverwinter. As soon as they got out the search was on. They quickly made their way through the city gates, passing another abandoned cannonball not far from their own. Once in the city they caught just a glimpse of the dwarf before he disappeared into the crowds of people. 

“What’s the plan now?” Taako asked. 

“Now we find out where he’s been going. Hopefully without getting caught.” Angus was already charging forward into the crowds. Taako followed at a more leisurely pace. 

“And why do we care about where he’s going?” Taako asked. 

“Because he’s been so secretive about it! Every weekend he runs off somewhere and no one knows where or why. And he always gets all cagey if you ask him about it. I want to know why,” Angus explained. 

“You’re a really nosey kid, you know that?” Taako asked. 

“There!” Angus said, ignoring him. Taako looked to where he was pointing to see the dwarf veer off towards a park. 

“Come on, we can use the trees to stay out of sight,” said Angus. Then Taako was being dragged towards the treeline of the park. He rolled his eyes affectionately at his son’s determination. 

Angus let the dwarf get a bit of a head start before they took off after him. He was careful to stay where the trees were denser and gave him more cover. 

“Hey, I’ve got an idea,” Taako said suddenly. When Angus turned back to look at him he’d vanished. 

“Invisibility?” Angus asked. 

“Yup,” Taako’s disembodied voice confirmed. 

“That’s a good idea. Can you cast it on me?” Angus asked. 

“Cast it yourself, mister wizard. Actually, don’t. I need to be able to see you to follow you,” Taako said. 

“Fine,” Angus huffed, returning his attention to following Merle. As they continued to follow him, Merle began to slow his pace. He started glancing suspiciously around at the park. Angus tried to duck out of sight as he turned his attention towards the trees, but it was too late. 

“Okay! I see ya! Come on out!” Merle called. Angus sheepishly walks out towards the path.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I knew you were going out on secret missions, and I just got so panicked about it, and I tried to talk to you about it but I got too nervous, so I thought I’d just do some detective work, and I’m really sorry!” Angus rambled. 

When the dwarf just glared and started raising a massive looking wrench towards his boy, Taako decided to make himself known. He placed a protective hand on Angus’ shoulder and blinked back into visibility, wand raised in an obvious threat. 

“You’re gonna want to put that down, kemosabe,” he said in a tone cold as ice. 

“Shit!” Merle yelled in surprise. The wrench dropped to the ground. “Who the hell are you?”

“I’m Angus’ father, and I don’t appreciate you threatening him,” he said. 

“This is your dad, kid?” Merle asked. Angus nodded. “Huh. I don’t know what I was expecting but it definitely wasn’t that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean old man?” Taako demanded.

“It means you look like a weirdo pointy hat,” Merle shot back. 

“You’re one to ta--” Taako was cut off as he was suddenly tackled to the ground by a little dwarven boy. 

“I got him dad! I got him!” the boy cheered as he pinned Taako to the ground. Taako wheezed from the impact of hitting the ground. He glared up at Angus and Merle when he saw them both laughing at him. 

“You sure did, fireball. Great job,” Merle praised. 

“Mookie get off of him!” another voice called. Taako looked up to see a dwarven girl approaching them. She quickly pulled the boy off of his stomach and gave him an apologetic look. 

“You can’t just tackle people,” she scolded the boy. 

“But he was pointin’ a wand at dad!” he argued.

While the two of them fought, Taako turned his attention to Merle. 

“Do these little gremlins belong to you?” he asked. Merle sighed and glanced between him and Angus, looking like he was debating his answer. 

“Yeah these two are my kids,” he confessed. “Mavis, Mookie, stop fighting. I wanna introduce you to a coworker of mine, Angus. He’s a child detective or something. And I guess this is his dad. Angus, whatever your name is, meet my kids, Mavis and Mookie.” 

“Hello,” Mavis greeted, waving politely. 

“Dad! Dad! Can I wrassle the little one?” Mookie asked, excitedly pulling on Merle’s shirtsleeve. 

“Sure you can, fireball,” Merle said. 

“Yes!” Mookie cheered. Angus went from looking stunned to terrified in a matter of seconds.

“Wait! Don’t--” he tried to protest, but Mookie was already charging at him. He tried to runaway but didn’t make it far before he was tackled to the ground. Mavis trailed after them and tried to stop her brother from causing too much harm, leaving Taako and Merle alone. 

“You know, I’ll kick your ass if your kid breaks my kid,” Taako said mildly. Merle just scoffed. 

“I’d like to see you try,” he shot back. 

“What’s with the whole secret family schtick anyways? Taako asked. Merle tensed at the question. 

“Why do you care?” Merle deflected. Taako shrugged.

“It is what the kid dragged me out here to find out. Besides, if you tell me then maybe we can skip most of Ango’s interrogation.” Merle considered this for a moment, narrowing his eyes at Angus, who was now chatting amicably with Mavis. 

“Alright, fine,” Merle said. “I was a really crappy dad. I wasn’t even really around for a lot of their lives. I’ve been trying to do better but one of my biggest shames is that I left them. I didn’t want everyone to find out and think that I was a complete and total shithead. I guess you wouldn’t know anything about that though, huh?”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Taako scoffed. 

“It means from the way the kid sings your praises you’d think that you’ve never messed up in your life,” Merle said. 

“If that’s true then he’s been very forgiving when he’s talking about me because I barely have it together half the time,” Taako said. 

“You sure about that?” Merle asked flatly.

“My man in this past week alone I have been so far from functional that Angus had to make sure that I was even feeding myself,” Taako said. Merle looked surprised but gave a dismissive shrug of his shoulders. 

“Sounds like we’re both pretty shit at this parenting thing,” he conceded. 

“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” Taako laughed. “At least we’re trying.”

“At least we’re trying,” Merle agreed. 

“Anyways, I’ll grab Angus and we’ll leave you to whatever plans you had before we interrupted,” Taako said. 

“You know, you don’t have to leave if you don’t want to. It looks like the kids are having fun anyways,” Merle offered. 

“Alright then I guess we’ll stay, ” Taako said with a shrug.

The five of them spend the rest of the day at the park. Merle and Taako talked idly as they watched over the kids, who are got along well except for the few times Mookie tackled Angus to the ground. Soon it started getting dark so they all started heading towards home. As they’re walking through the streets of Neverwinter, they start to hear a commotion in the distance. And then, from out of nowhere, a huge wagon is suddenly barreling towards Mavis and Mookie. Taako and Merle both try to grab their spell focuses to intervene, but before they can react the cart jerks in another direction, crashing instead into a nearby shop. 

Angus is the first to move, running towards Mavis and Mookie to make sure that they were alright. Taako and Merle hang back for a second to look around and make sure the danger has passed. As they do, they both catch a glimpse of a red-robed figure with its arm outstretched and arcane energy crackling from its fingertips. They watch as it lowers its arm back to its side, turns to them, nods, and disappears. 

“What was that about?” Taako mutters. 

“I have no idea,” said Merle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much @OpulenceInLife for requesting some more Merle content and inspiring this chapter. I really enjoyed writing this one and I'm hoping it'll be a nice break from the sadness for you all


End file.
